Super Danganronpa X: Into The Shadows
by Shaggy Rower
Summary: After waking up aboard a luxury yacht with 15 of the worlds most talented teenagers Jack North finds himself forced into a killing game in order to survive. But who controls the psychopathic Monokuma? Why are they doing this? And which of them is the mysterious traitor that thwarts their attempts to escape at every turn?
1. The Boy Named Jack

"Hey, you awake?"

…

"Hey c'mon man, wake up!"

…

*Sigh* "Well looks like you're not leaving me much choice here…"

*SLAP*

Jack awoke with a start as a sharp pain spread across his cheek. The light in his face was hard and bright, and Jack had no choice but to turn his unadjusted eyes away from it. His head felt like someone had taken an axe to it, and his body felt dull and strange. A groan escaped his lips as his brain tried to sort out the overload of stimuli it had suddenly found itself exposed to.

"Hey he lives! Sorry about that kiddo, I tried shaking you and everything but you just didn't want to come too."

A figure was standing over him. Jack could only make out a silhouette, as his eyes still weren't ready to face what he assumed was the sun, but the figures kind voice seemed to be male with a British accent and a rather upbeat feel to it. The unknown man pulled Jack up into a sitting position and pushed a bottle of water into his hands.

"Hey now don't strain yourself. If how you feel now is anything like how I felt waking up, it'd be best if you took some deep breaths, had a drink and composed yourself. There doesn't seem to be any need to rush, so wake yourself up a bit."

With that the figure left. Taking his advice Jack took a few deep breaths, had a swig of water, then closed his eyes and tried to get his memory back into order."

He was Jack North, a white American teenager of normal height and build. He had no notable features except his very clear, milky blue eyes and his light brown, crew cut hair with a tiny ahoge jutting out of the middle. Right now he was wearing his usual attire of faded blue jeans, white trainers and a white polo shirt with a dark red "+" over the left breast pocket. For all accounts Jack didn't look like anything too unusual at first glance; however he wasn't a person most would consider ordinary.

It started when he was 6. He and his mother were waiting at a crowded bus stop in town when the man standing next to them suddenly started gasping, clutching at his chest, and collapsed. He had had a stroke. Everybody panicked, either backing away or crowding around him. However Jack felt no panic or confusion, without consciously thinking about it Jack let go of his mother's hand, pushed through the throng of people surrounding the dying man, and knelt down beside him. He calmly asked the man his name, checked the man's throat for anything blocking the airways, and put the man into a recovery position, keeping his head and shoulders propped up with his lap. He then coolly asked the people surrounding them to step back a little and call an ambulance.

The ambulance was heavily delayed due to traffic, and the paramedics didn't expect they'd make it in time to save the man's life. So when they arrived at the scene to find that a child had performed flawless first aid on him they were nothing short of astounded.

Weirder still was the experience for Jack. He didn't have the first clue what first aid was or what exactly he had done. He had just peacefully gone about it with the innate feeling that what he was doing would work, to him it seemed as natural as walking. A few days after the event a letter was sent to Jack from the hospital, apparently if it hadn't been for his instinctive actions the man would have almost certainly died. The next day Jack's mum took him to visit the man at the hospital, where he and his family had thanked Jack profusely for saving his life.

Jack had never forgotten that day. The heartfelt thanks of the man and his family, the pride his parents had felt towards him, the way everybody had treated him like a saint had made him feel so… so… heroic.

It was that feeling that drove him.

It drove him to find out as much as he could about first aid, and to enrol in as many lifesaving courses as he could.

It drove him to focus one hundred percent on any subject involving medicine or biology at school.

It drove him to convince local hospitals to contact him whenever there was an emergency nearby so he could rush to the scene and help.

By the time he was twelve he had saved dozens of lives in his local area, never had a patient died under his care. At fourteen he had gained so many awards and commendations for his work that his parents had to build a new cabinet to keep them all in. When he was fifteen a journalist had wrote an article about him that ended up in the national newspaper. He breezed through advanced medical courses that all but the most skilled doctors found challenging.

That must have been how he was spotted, because not long after that he received a letter all the way from Japan.

Hope's Peak Academy was famous all over the world; any student who attended was given a "Super High School Level" title based on a talent they showed incredible aptitude in, and was guaranteed success in whatever field they applied themselves to should they graduate. At the start Hope's Peak only took in students who lived in Japan, but when it became clear that there was so much talent all over the world for them to research, the academy's headmaster decided to build a new campus designed to offer the best learning experience for foreign students. For seven years the best and brightest of the young talents came from all over the world came to join the Hope's Peak "X Class".

And in his hands was a letter asking him to join fifteen other incredible students as the super high school level paramedic of the 8th X Class.

It didn't take long for Jack to accept.

He remembered standing in front of the campus gates, feeling giddy from the excitement and nerves which made his stomach feel like it was filled with butterflies. He remembered walking through the gates, half wanting to turn back and half wanting to jump about and whoop into the air. He remembered the anticipation and enthusiasm coursing through him about meeting the other students who would no doubt form a big part of his life from now on.

And then… nothing.

No matter how hard he tried, Jack could not remember anything that had happened to him after that. His sight had suddenly gone all fuzzy, and everything went dark. The worst part of this feeling was how unnatural it felt. It wasn't like any other time Jack had forgotten something, in fact he had never felt anything like it before.

Come to think of it his whole body felt a little bit odd, as if his physique had changed in the tiniest of ways. Had his arm muscles always been this firm? What had happened to him? Had he been kidnapped? Drugged? That would explain the headache he woke up with, and the peculiar feeling. Then where was he now?

With his eyes now better adjusted to the light, Jack took a look at his current situation. He was sitting on a white wooden deckchair that he must have been sleeping on before he was woken up earlier. He seemed to be at the front of the top deck of a large ship, and all around it was a vast, vacant ocean that slightly sparked as it reflected the bright sun up above him. Behind him was a white building that Jack assumed must be the helm of the ship, and on either side of it were flights of stairs that probably led down to the rest of the top deck. There was also a small, fold out table with a few bottles of water on it, and a tannoy at the top of the helm.

*SLAP*

The sound came from Jack's left. Turning to find the source of the sound, Jack saw a rather unusual sight. Not too far from him lay another man on an identical deckchair. Actually to call him a mere man wasn't quite accurate, the person was over twice Jacks height and seemed to be made entirely of slabs of muscle, a giant would be a better description of him. How exactly the deckchair was able to support the giants weight was a mystery. The giant wore a faded blue shirt underneath dirty orange builder's overalls, that didn't at all suit his pale white skin and cropped blonde hair. He was currently in a deep slumber despite the red, hand shaped mark forming on his cheek.

Standing over the giant was a teenage boy who was grasping his right hand and wincing in agony. Clearly in the collision between his hand and the giant's cheek, his hand had come of far worse. He looked about the same height and age as Jack, however he seemed more muscular, not in the same bulky way as the giant, but in a more sleek and refined way. He had his dark brown hair shaped into a fauxhawk with an immaculately trimmed goatee around his mouth, and wore ripped dark grey jeans, a yellow t-shirt (with the words 'Havoc' printed on it in black) underneath a black jacket with ripped sleeves, and a chain sash around his torso. Jack also noticed that the teenager seemed to be wearing black plimsolls in place of normal shoes. As Jack twisted around to face him, the teenager turned to look at him, staring at Jack with a pair of remarkably striking dark grey, almost black, eyes with thin yellow rings around the pupils.

"Hey now, look who's back down on planet earth!" exclaimed the boy in a familiar British accent. Jack realised this was the guy who had woken him not so long ago.

"Sorry about the slap, I couldn't seem to get you up any other way. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work on everyone." the boy said, briefly glancing toward the sleeping giant before walking over the Jack, hand outstretched.

"Pleasure to meet you. My name's Ian, Ian Bloodwish. What's yours?"

Though a little perturbed at the boy's unusual last name, Jack shook his hand and replied "Jack, Jack North. Nice to meet you."

Ian grinned. "Well Jack, I don't suppose you know anything about our current situation do you?"

Looking around some more, Jack realised it wasn't just the three of them on the deck. About 16 identical deckchairs were all lined up side by side to each other facing out towards the sea. On his right Jack saw two empty deckchairs, one of which must have been Ian's. To his left Jack saw a variety of rather bizarre looking people. Half of them still slept while the rest of them seemed to be sitting with a drink in their hand the same way Jack had been not too long ago. One girl in a golden kimono was walking about, giving a drink to someone, who Jack guessed must have been sleeping on the other deckchair on his right.

Noticing his gaze, Ian filled in the facts for him. "The sixteen of us seem to have all been lying here unconscious for god knows how long. I was woken up by the girl in the golden kimono, who told me to help wake people up and give them some water. Everyone seems to need a little time to gather their thoughts."

"I see" Jack replied. He turned back to Ian, "From your earlier question, I take it you don't know why you're here either?"

"Nope," Ian frowned. "Something odd happened to me as I was walking through the gates of Hope's Peak, next thing I knew I woke up here."

"Hang on," said Jack, "it's the same with me. I was just entering the campus for Hope's Peak X Class, and then everything went fuzzy."

"Oh really? Were you going to join the 8th X Class as well?" Ian asked.

"Yes I was." Jack looked back to the other awakening people. "Do you think everyone here is our class?"

"Well the numbers add up." Ian replied. "There's supposed to be 16 people per class, and everyone here looks a little…zany…which is what you'd expect from a class of super talented people I guess. So what I assume is the newest bunch of Hope's Peak students all wake up on an unknown ship in the middle of an unknown sea. What is going on here?"

"I have no idea." Jack said, starting to feel a little uneasy about their situation. Suddenly he thought of something, "Oh that's right, talents; I'm the super high school level paramedic. What about you?"

"I'm the… hang on, what's that?" Ian spotted something on the table behind the deckchairs and walked over to it. He picked up a sheet of paper, "This wasn't here before."

By now all the students, even the giant, had awoken, and were either chatting to one another or getting their heads straight. As Ian picked up the note and cleared his throat they all turned their attention to him.

"Good morning students of Hope's Peak 8th X Class."

A few of the students looked around at one another.

"Don't worry your little heads about what's going on. I have some urgent business I must quickly finish up, but I'll be along to explain the trip shortly. Until then please introduce yourselves and get to know each other.

Signed: The Headmaster."

Jack let out a sigh of relief; he'd been getting worked up over nothing. This was all some kind of welcome trip for the new students, nothing to worry about.

However as Ian walked back to him with a look of concern, the uneasy feeling crept up again.

"What's wrong Ian, why the long face?" he asked.

"What do you mean? Aren't you worried about all this? Something's clearly wrong here." Ian replied.

"Something's wrong? What? This is some kind of Hope's Peak school trip, just like the note said."

"That note's the problem! First of all Hope's Peak may not be like any normal school, but I seriously doubt even they'd go through all the trouble of knocking us unconscious and sneaking us aboard a boat for some welcome trip. Second, what kind of a school has a trip to begin the school year? Third, that note wasn't there when I first looked, so who went to the effort of concealing themselves from us to place this note if we were just on a school trip? Fourth, why would the headmaster come on this trip with the foreign, non-Japanese speaking students when he's Japanese and has an academy to run? And last of all, who signs a note as just "Headmaster"? It makes no sense!"

Jack couldn't help but agree with him. As much as he wanted to believe there was an innocent explanation for all this Ian was right, it didn't add up. "So what should we do then?" he asked.

Ian sighed. "Well I guess it wouldn't hurt to play along, for now. We don't want to alarm everyone though, so let's keep our suspicions to ourselves. How about we go and introduce ourselves to everyone." He smiled. "Oh, and before I forget, I guess I better give a proper Hope's Peak introduction."

He crossed his arms and grinned. "I'm Ian Bloodwish, super high school level assassin. A pleasure to meet you."


	2. Proper Introductions

An assassin!

Ian was an assassin!

Jack had been standing here talking to an assassin, a man who murders people for a living!

It was hard for Jack to comprehend, like the words just didn't want to sink in. Ian certainly had a distinct look, no ordinary person would wear a chain sash after all, but he didn't look the way Jack would expect a hitman to look, there was no feel of danger of violence about him.

Ian seemed to guess what Jack was thinking and chuckled. "What, you were expecting an assassin to walk around in a balaclava with a few guns holstered on his belt? The thing about a well-trained assassin is they look and act no different from ordinary people. Until it's time to strike that is."

"You haven't come here to kill someone, have you?" Jack asked cautiously.

Ian chuckled gently at that. "No, my presence here has nothing to do with my work. Like I said, I was on my way to Hope's Peak when I suddenly woke up here. Trust me, I'm not gonna hurt you."

Although he wanted to be wary of the assassin standing before him, Ian didn't seem the least bit threatening. Jack somehow couldn't bring himself to see Ian as dangerous, hell despite his clothes the kid didn't look like he'd so much as step on a bug. _"I guess that's the power of a super high school level assassin. Hope's Peak really does take on some unusual talents."_ Jack thought. "How exactly did you find out you had a talent for… you know…" he asked.

"Well assassinations kind of my family business." Ian replied. "The Bloodwish family trains its children in its assassination techniques from birth, so my talent showed up sometime during training when I was young. Anyway, enough about me," Ian turned to look at the other students, who were now all standing up and introducing themselves to each other. "I guess we'd better go say hello, c'mon."

With that Ian walked towards the crowd of students. Jack pushed his doubts about his new friend to the side and caught up with him as they approached the mass of teenagers.

The first person the duo approached was a tall, unhappy looking Egyptian boy. He had a rich brown skin and shabby black hair put into unkempt dreadlocks, and dangling off his chin was a long, black goatee that looked like a pharaoh's. The boy was dress in brown and white Sheppard's robes, with a large wicker basket strapped to his back like a satchel. As Jack and Ian approached, the boy held out his hand to stop them.

In a thick, gruff Egyptian accent the boy spoke. "Do not come any closer, a step further and you risk endangering your lives."

Jack paused, confused by the odd boys behaviour. However his ears quickly caught on to a hissing noise emanating from the wicker basket.

Lowering his hand, the boy explained. "My name is Abasi Gahiji, the snake charmer. My companions here are very over protective of me, so come closer and you risk falling prey to their fangs."

Ian eyed the basket curiously before breaking out a large grin. "Well Abasi it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Ian, the assassin."

Jack decided to smile as well. "And I'm Jack, the paramedic."

Abasi did not return the smile; clearly he was a rather cynical person. "An interesting pair of talents, but now that we are introduced I request that you leave me be, I do not wish to bring any calamity upon you with my presence."

Acknowledging that they were unwelcome, Jack and Ian decided the leave the conversation at that. As they walked away from Abasi, Ian whispered to Jack, "Well he seems rather… antisocial. Quite an interesting title though, I guess Hope's Peak really does accept a wide variety of talents."

Jack opened his mouth to reply, but before he could he was interrupted by a girl jumping out in front of him. She had lightly tanned brown skin and a long, black braided ponytail sticking out from underneath her purple beanie hat. Her t-shirt was covered from top to bottom in graffiti patterns, and her purple jeans looked like someone had gone a bit overboard on ripping them, they were practically shredded. The most noticeable thing about her at the moment though was the grin plastered to her face, which was so large Jack wondered if she had some kind of jaw deformity. When she spoke Jack recognised a light French accent.

"Yo boys, wassup! My names Melaine Nuage, but that's like totally uncool so everyone just calls me "Mel". I'm the super high school level snowboarder, it's so totally cool to meet ya."

The energy bubbling from the girl was so intense that Jack felt the sudden urge to run a marathon. And her smile was infectious; the two boys couldn't stop themselves from grinning back as they replied.

"Jack North, paramedic."

"Ian Bloodwish, assassin."

The energy radiating from Mel seemed to double in intensity. "A paramedic and an assassin! That's sooooooooooooo cooooooooooool! Oh man this trip is gonna absolutely rock! Hey you guys are gonna be in the same class as me for a few years right! We are gonna be like the best of best of friends!"

"I'm looking forward to it" Jack replied. Before he could continue the conversation, Mel noticed Abasi standing alone away from the rest of the group.

"Well I'll see you boys later, cao."

With that she bounded off toward the snake charmer. As much as Jack wanted to see what happened when the snowboarder's personality bombarded the unapproachable Abasi, he decided to turn his attention toward the familiar giant lumbering toward them.

It was the blonde, builders overall clad boy that Ian had unsuccessfully tried to awaken earlier. Jack hadn't considered it before but the giant was supposedly a fellow classmate of his, making him a high school student as well. As the boy loomed of him, Jack wondered what he must eat to have earned a physique like that. It would put most wrestlers to shame.

As the giant stopped in front of the two teens, a timid smile spread across his face and he rubbed the back of his head in a nervous manner. With a deep, polish accent the giant introduced himself.

"Umm, hi there. I'm Solomon Woychek, the super high school level sculptor."

Jack had him figured out in a heartbeat. A big guy he may be, but a big softie by the looks of it. Jack couldn't quite understand his talent though, how could someone with hands as thick as blocks of concrete possibly be a half decent sculptor, let alone a super talented one?

Ian took the lead with their side of the introductions this time. "Ian Bloodwish, super high school level assassin. It's a pleasure."

"Jack North, super high school level paramedic."

Solomon broke into a big, soft grin. "It's an honour," he said. "I never expected to meet Hope's Peak students, let alone be one myself."

"What makes you say that?" Jack asked, "I mean you must be a pretty amazing sculptor to be recognised by Hope's Peak."

"Well yeah, I'm ok at sculpting. But I'm terrible at everything else." Solomon replied, looking slightly embarrassed. "I'm clumsy and dumb, so people always thought I'd never amount to much, the only thing I'm not bad at is sculpting after all. Yet for some reason Hope's Peak wanted some like me around."

"Hey now, don't sell yourself short." Jack said encouragingly. "There are many different types of intelligence that make people better at different things, and everyone has an affinity for certain types. Sure you may be lacking a little in other areas, but I bet you're an absolute genius when it comes to crafting."

"That's right." Ian said, "Hope's Peak only takes the best of the best. So don't get yourself down, your being here shows that you're super smart in your own way."

Solomon grinned shyly "Thanks guys, I'm sorry I've taken up all your time talking about myself."

"Don't worry about it." Jack said with a smile. "Now hold your head high when you introduce yourself to the others."

"I'll do that. See you later." Solomon said, lumbering off to meet another student.

"He seems like a nice guy, like a big friendly giant." Ian said. "Still though, I doubt I'll be asking him for help with my homework."

Silently agreeing, Jack and Ian spotted two students not too far off and headed over to introduce themselves.

The two students were locked in a heated argument. On the left side was a white skinned boy with very short, green hair hidden underneath a black beanie. He wore a black and white stripped jumper and black trousers, however the most interesting thing about him was the small, black eye mask he wore, which his bright green eyes peered out of. He was currently red in the face and ranting at the other student in an Irish accent.

"Arrest me! You can't bloody arrest me! How are you gonna arrest someone when you don't even know where the bloody hell you are!"

On the right side stood a girl with lightly tanned skin and long, loose silver hair. She wore a navy blue policewoman's uniform and had a taser strapped to her right leg, which her body language showed she was considering using. She had a clear, commanding voice, which was just as loud as the Irish boy's when she shouted back at him.

"It doesn't matter where you are, the law is the law! Now submit quietly to your arrest, anything you say or do may be held against you!"

"Like hell I will, you're not even a real cop! I'm not gonna be taken in by some little girl who doesn't even know the way up her own…"

*Ahem* "We're not interrupting anything, are we?" Ian interrupted.

The arguing pair jumped, clearly having forgotten that they were not alone. They both turned to face Ian, faces half red from the shouting and half from embarrassment.

"Sorry you had to hear that civilian." said the girl. "My name is Nicole Castle, the super high school level cop. This felon over here is…"

"I can introduce myself!" the green haired boy muttered. "Patrick Greenaway, the robber, nice ta meet ya."

Now knowing their talents, Jack suddenly understood what the two must have been arguing about. These two were complete opposites, so he guessed a conflict between them was inevitable.

"My names Jack North, I'm the super high school level paramedic." Jack said politely.

"Ah, a noble title indeed, I read the news report on you." Nicole exclaimed.

"And I'm Ian Bloodwish, the super high school level assassin." Ian said with a smile.

"An assassin!" Nicole looked shocked. "I know the staff at Hope's Peak aren't above inviting people with… questionable talents… but I didn't think they'd go so far as to invite an assassin. I didn't hear anything about you in the media."

"That's 'cause you've not been looking in the right circles girlie." Patrick grinned. "There may not have been anything about him in the newspapers, but in the underworld he's been the talk of the town." The Irish boy directed his attention to Ian. "I know about the Bloodwish family, one hell of a scary group. So you're the up and coming prodigy huh? Rumour has it you only take targets who are seriously evil. "

"That's right." Ian replied. He noticed Nicole's hand inching closer to her taser and raised his hands defensively. "Trust me, you've got nothing to fear from me. I'm on the side of the angels."

Nicole eyed him for a few seconds, and then sighed. "Very well then," she said, retracting her hand from her weapon, "I guess I won't take action for now, but I'll keep my eye on you. I'm glad there's at least one other upstanding member of society on this ship." Nicole said, looking over to Jack.

"Hey hang on! So it's fine with you to let him go, but I have to be "immediately detained"! Where the hell's the justice in that!" Patrick butted in.

"That's because you're an immediate danger to the peace and security of this trip, whereas your testimony from earlier shows that…"

At this point Jack and Ian decided it would be best to just leave those two to it, and left.

"This ship is filled with the most interesting people isn't it?" Ian remarked as the two of them made their way back to the general crowd of people.

Jack smiled slightly, "Oh yeah, whatever's going on here, it's going to be lively with people like this around."

The next students the boys encountered were also engaged in a heated discussion, although this one was clearly more one sided. On the left side was a pale skinned boy with a face full of freckles and frizzy ginger hair sprouting out from underneath a top hat. He wore a white suit shirt with a black tie and black chino's, and had a pair of white kid gloves concealing his hands. He was talking animatedly to the small girl next to him, who had short, brown hair, and wore a yellow hoodie with a smiley face logo in black printed on the front, and a short, black skirt. She also had a small, pink backpack with a yellow felt hand puppet sticking out the top.

As Jack and Ian approached, the girl noticed them and gave them a pleading look, which Jack guessed was a cry for help to save her from the ginger boy's rambling. Deciding to assist her, the two boys headed over to the unknown pair. As they came closer, the boy in the top hat noticed them and directed his attention to them.

"Salutations fellow classmates, today surely is a lucky day for you, as you stand in the presence of the world renowned Harold Houdini!" he boasted, taking a bow. As he stood up again, he noticed the blank looks on the two boy's faces. "You have heard of me, right?"

Besides him the small girl looked at them urgently and nodded her head slightly. Catching on to her meaning, Jack smiled and lied, "Of course we have, who hasn't heard of such a famous… magician."

It had been a shot in the dark, but the urgent gestures from the small girl made it clear that answering no would have resulted in a long winded lecture from the freckled lad. Taking into account the top hat on his head, and the clearly fake name "Harold Houdini" which belonged to a famous magician from long ago, Jack had made a reasonable guess.

Luckily he was correct.

"Not just a mere magician, a super high school level magician." Harold laughed. "Well it's not like I only have that going for me. I am naturally talented in many, many things. But I suppose Hope's Peak didn't want to give me a title for each one, or else introducing myself would take years."

Deciding to cut his boasting short, the small girl stepped forward. "And I'm Laura Sparks, the super high school level puppeteer."

"Jack North, paramedic."

"Ian Bloodwish, assassin. A pleasure. And who's that poking out of your backpack?"

Laura smiled a little "This is Clow." She took the yellow felt puppet (which, at a closer look, seemed to be half cat and half rabbit) out of her backpack and put it on her hand. "My first and favourite puppet, say hello Clow."

The little yellow puppet waved at Jack. Even with such a simple movement Laura's talent showed, the puppets arm bent and moved as precisely as a normal humans would. "Hello Jack and Ian." Clow said in a silly voice, "There are a few other puppets in the backpack, we'll all do a show for you sometime."

Jack was thoroughly impressed. Laura's mouth hadn't so much as twitched, and yet Clow had a clear voice that seemed to originate from his own mouth. Even when not moving or talking, Laura gave the impression that Clow was breathing. Such attention to detail was no doubt evidence of the talent that made Laura worthy of her title.

Laura put Clow back into her backpack. "Clow was hand made by my mother ages ago. He's not a very well-crafted puppet, so I don't get to use him for proper shows, but kids love him."

"Bah, a true showman should use the greatest props and tricks at their disposal, and should always aim for the greatest venues. Not be content to use a glorified dishcloth to entertain a pack of toddlers." Harold interjected with a disdainful look.

"Hey you jerk! You've gotta lot of nerve saying stuff like that to me, I don't need to hear criticism from some wannabe magician who's compensating for a lack of talent with a big mouth!" Laura replied, pouting.

"How dare you…" Harold began, but it was too late. Laura had marched off to talk to someone else. He turned back to Jack and Ian, "Hmm, she seems a little upset. Was it perhaps something I said?" he asked.

Ian sighed. "Perhaps you shouldn't come on so strongly with the boasting next time."

"Hmm, you think my greatness was too much for her to bear? Perhaps I'll tone it down with the next person I encounter." Harold pondered. He fixed his eyes on a pretty girl with long, pink hair at the other side of the ship, and a lecherous grin spread across his face. "Anyway, since you insisted, I shall tell you more about my amazing tricks another time, until then adieu."

As the magician rushed off towards the girl, Ian turned to Jack with a doubtful look and asked "Have you really heard of him before?"

"Of course not, I just didn't want to get him started on a lengthy introduction." Jack replied. "But if he's here he must be very good."

"That's true. His shows must be truly spectacular, I'll admit I'd quite like to see one." Ian said. Then a frown spread across the assassin's face, "But I don't get why he'd call himself Harold Houdini. If it's an attempt to get some recognition using the name of a long dead magician it's a bad one."

"Perhaps he doesn't want to tell us his real name yet." Jack suggested. "Maybe it's really embarrassing."

"Yeah, it could be" Ian said. "Anyway we should continue our introductions for now."

The next student the boys met was a meek looking boy with pale skin and snow white hair that flopped down into a mullet. He wore a white shirt with black stars dotted around the left side, and black tracksuit trousers with a white line running down each leg. Around his neck he wore a small silver cross. As Jack and Ian approached him boy looked a little nervous, but gave a small smile.

Jack began the introductions. "Hi there. I'm Jack North, super high school level paramedic."

"And I'm Ian Bloodwish, super high school level assassin. What's your name?"

The boy looked a little taken aback when Ian announced his talent, but quickly recovered. "I'm N-Noah Saintsrun, I'm the super high school level good luck."

"Oh I remember," Ian said. "Every year Hope's Peak gets the names of every high school student, then picks one at random to join the class as a student with a talent for good luck. I heard that they're researching what it is that makes people lucky. So you're class luckster are you?"

"Y-Yeah, that's me." Noah looked down at his feet "Not much of a talent is it?"

"Don't think like that." Ian replied. "For the X class, the lottery has the names of every high school student in the world included. The odds of being chosen are astronomical, which makes your talent pretty awesome in my opinion."

"So was this just a one off thing? Or are you always really lucky?" Jack asked.

"Well to be honest this sort of thing happens to me a lot." Noah replied. "I mean, this is definitely the luckiest thing that's ever happened to me, but life does seem to go my way a lot of the time." The luckster smiled, "A lot of people say I'm blessed by God."

"That's so cool!" Ian said with a grin. "I can't wait to see what sort of things are going to happen around here with a lucky student around. Have a bit more pride in your talent."

"um… s-sure."

"AHA! G'DAY FELLOW COMRADES!"

Jumping at the bellowing voice behind them, Jack and Ian turned around to face a strange Australian girl with messy black hair and a black eye patch over her right eye. The girl wore a messy camouflaged military uniform with a sash full of rounds of ammo and shiny black military boots. As the three boys gazed at her in stunned silence, the girl continued her noisy introduction.

"MY NAME IS BLAKE AMSEL, THOUGH YOU MAY CALL ME "SIR" OR "COMMANDER". I AM THE SUPER HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL PILOT. TOGETHER WE SHALL FREE THIS WORLD FROM THE SHACKLES OF TYRANNY!"

Jack shook his head to get rid of the ringing noise before introducing himself. "Jack North, super high school level paramedic."

"Ian Bloodwish, assassin. A pleasure"

"Oh umm, m-my name is Noah Saintsrun sir. I'm the super high school level good luck."

"WHAT FINE TALENTS YOU HAVE MY COMRADES, YOU WILL ALL MAKE A FINE ADDITION TO THE ARMADA." Blake roared happily.

"Yeah, sounds great, do you think you speak just a little quieter?" Ian pleaded as he clutched his ears.

"ABSOLUTELY NOT, QUIETNESS IS THE TRAIT OF A MOUSE! WE A MEN, NOT MICE! AND I REFUSE TO ACT LIKE ONE!" Blake bellowed.

"Sorry, am I missing something here?" Jack asked. "What armada? What exactly do you mean by freeing the world from the shackles of tyranny?"

"WHY IT IS SIMPLE COMRADE" Blake yelled. "YOU HAVE JOINED THE RANKS OF MANY OTHERS TO FIGHT IN MY ARMADA AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT, THE CORPORATIONS AND ANY OTHERS WHO ENSLAVE THE WORLD TO THEIR WILLS."

Unsure as to how exactly he had been conscripted into this "armada", and concerned about the potential damage his ears had suffered, Jack decided now would be a good time to leave the conversation. As Noah was dragged into an excessively loud discussion on how important luck was on the battlefield, Ian and Jack slipped off to find another student to talk to.

A few seconds after slipping away from Blake, another student approached the two boys. He was a tall, lanky boy with shoulder length brown hair, except for a black streak down the front left side, and a thin, black handlebar moustache. He wore a brown, red and black tudor costume with a large white shoulder length ruffle neck, which Jack though made him look a little like the portraits of Shakespeare. As he drew closer, the peculiarly dressed boy introduced himself.

"Forsooth, most gracious tiding upon thee o childe of Hope's Peak. Before thou stands that most inspired of faeries christened Raulf Geffron, who hath been bestowed with the title of Playwright."

Jack had no idea what the odd boy in front of him had just said. Fortunately Ian was able to shed some light on the situation.

"He's speaking in old English, an ancient form of English that fell out of modern society hundreds of years ago. I heard that in the most remote parts of England a few people still exist who speak it."

"Can you translate?" Jack asked.

"I'll try." Ian replied. "I think he said something along the lines of "Hello Hope's Peak students. My name is Raulf Geffron, the super high school level Playwright." Ian held out his hand to Raulf "I'm Ian Bloodwish, the assassin."

"A flawless translation oh little son of shadows." Raulf replied, shaking Ian's outstretched hand before turning to Jack expectantly.

"Oh, I'm Jack North, the paramedic." Jack said, offering his hand to the playwright as well.

"Tidings to thee practitioner of health and hearth. Hath this duo laid thine eyes upon a rendition of my fine works afore?"

"He's asking if either of us have seen one of his plays before. I can't say I have" Ian said.

"I haven't either I'm afraid" replied Jack. Upon hearing this, Raulf took a melodramatic step backwards and raised the back of his hand to his forehead. "Oh woe, woe is me. That these fledglings hath yet to encounter my works. Never hath they felt the catharsis of one of my many tragedies, nor rejoiced in the hilarity of my merry comedies. Truly I weep for thee."

"I think he's saying that he's sad we've never seen one of his plays, and he thinks we'd really like them." Ian translated.

"Well since we're classmates now, I'll be sure to watch one of your plays the next chance I get." Jack replied. In truth he had never been very interested in plays, but anything made by the super high school level playwright must be worth seeing.

"A worthy quest, stay true until next we meet." Raulf smiled, and left the two boys.

Jack turned to Ian, "I'm starting to think there's a link between being talented and insanity. That way of speaking is going to take some getting used to."

The assassin laughed, "I think you're more right than you know."

Jack and Ian decided to introduce themselves next to the girl in the golden kimono who had woken up first. As they approached her she turned to face them, and Jack was suddenly struck by how beautiful she was.

The girl appeared to be half Asian with long, flowing blonde hair, lightly tanned white skin and large, striking violet eyes with long, dark eyelashes. She wore a golden kimono patterned with silver flower petals (through which Jack couldn't help notice her well-endowed chest), and wooden geta on her feet. Just looking at her, Jack could feel blood rush to his cheeks, something Ian seemed to notice.

With a grin the assassin remarked, "Easy there tiger, you're not going to make a good first impression looking like a radiator."

The girl began the introductions, "Nice to meet you. My name is Grace Hiraki, the super high school level sensor."

"I've heard of you!" Ian remarked. "The Hiraki clan is a famous martial artist family in Japan, all members of the family are trained from a young age in the Hiraki martial arts style. If memory serves correctly, the Hiraki style focuses on heightening all 5 of a person's senses and using them to react to an enemy almost instantaneously."

"Correct." grace replied. "All five of my senses are the sharpest in recorded history for someone my age."

"That's amazing!" said Jack. "I'm…"

Before he could introduce himself, Grace interrupted. "No need, I accidentally overheard your earlier introductions to each other. You are Jack North, the paramedic, and you…" she turned to face Ian "are Ian Bloodwish, the assassin."

Since the beginning of their introduction, Grace had yet to show any facial expressions, she had maintained a perfect poker face. However for the briefest moment a slight look of concern passed over her face.

"I also overheard your suspicions about the legitimacy of this trip. I'm glad to have not been the only one to notice, something is definitely wrong here."

A look of concern re-emerged on Ian face. "I know right," he said, "we've been here for a while now, yet no teachers or crew members have shown up."

"If anyone walked about on the top deck of this ship I would have heard it, yet since we woke up I have yet to detect any other movement. It would suggest this ship is abandoned except for us."

Jack suddenly realised something "That can't be right. Earlier on Ian said that the note on the table wasn't there when he first looked, yet everybody except for you two was still lying down. Somebody must have put that note there at some point."

"And yet I didn't notice them." Grace closed her eyes and folder her arms, "This is becoming more concerning by the second."

"Whoever's behind this, they'll probably reveal themselves after our introductions are finished." Ian added.

"Most likely, with that in mind we should all finish our introductions as soon as possible. Goodbye for now." Grace said as she walked off.

Ian smiled "She's a smart one, not exactly easy to read though. Come on, let's go talk to someone else."

The next student the boys approached was a tall Asian girl with perfectly straight black hair than fell down to her shoulders. She wore small silver tinted spectacles, a black suit with silver pinstripes and a red tie. Jack also noticed that she wore expensive looking rings on each finger, and had folded the sleeve on her left arm to uncover a very expensive Rolex watch. The girl had a scowl on her face, which only deepened as the pair approached.

"*Sigh* And yet more commoners believe themselves worthy of my valuable time." The girl glared at the two of them, "Listen well! You stand in the presence of Rokaku Kokori, the super high school level entrepreneur. If you must introduce yourselves then do so quickly, otherwise leave. I don't have time to waste on you."

So far the most unsociable student had been Abasi, but his self-imposed isolation had been in order to prevent harming any other students, not because he harboured any ill will. This girl however was downright rude. Nonetheless she was one of Jacks classmates now, so he figured it was important he at least tried to get along with her.

"I'm Jack North, super high school level paramedic." he said. He waited for Ian to introduce himself, yet the assassin made no attempt to. Instead he looked at Jack, "Let's go, if she doesn't want my introduction then she won't get it."

With that Ian walked off. Jack looked between the two for a bit before jogging to catch up with Ian. As he left he heard Rokaku muttering to herself, "Good riddance, I have better things to do with my time."

Jack wondered what exactly Rokaku had to do considering they had all woken up on an unknown ship, and from the looks of things none of the students had their cell phones on them. However he decided it was best not to ask, Rokaku probably wouldn't want Jack to speak to her anyway.

Jack also noticed that Ian seemed a little annoyed, and for a few seconds the assassin gave off a sharp aura that made something in the back of Jacks head scream for him to run away.

Jack made a mental note to not get on the bad side of the assassin; if Ian could make such an aura when just a little irritated then he really didn't want to know what the boy was like when he was furious.

The last two students the boys encountered were a small boy, who looked way too young to be a high school student (Jack guessed he was about 10), and the pretty, pink haired girl Harold had noticed earlier. The boy was the smallest in the group, with short, spiky blonde hair and tanned white skin. He wore an orange shirt underneath a red jacket with a golden lion picture on the back, red jeans, and a golden pendant of a roaring lions head. Like Mel, the boy was bubbling with energy, though he seemed more controlled than the snowboarder.

The girl had her long pink hair tied back with a red ribbon, and wore a straw hat along with green and brown gardener's overalls. She was also carrying an open satchel through which Jack could see a variety of small gardening tools. The two students greeted the boys cheerfully as they approached.

"Nice ta meet ya." said the young boy with a cheeky grin. "I'm William Lordan, the super high school level courage."

"And I'm Alice White, the super high school level gardener." said the pink haired girl.

"I've heard of you before Miss White." Ian said. "You're the girl who was highly praised by the queen for you astounding work on the gardens at Buckingham Palace."

Alice blushed slightly and looked to the side, embarrassed. "That's me. That whole incident was way overblown, I didn't do anything special."

William looked a little annoyed, "How come people have heard of you, yet no one knows about me!"

Ian looked apologetic, "Sorry kiddo, a talent for courage sounds fascinating. Were you in the news for anything?"

William's cheeky grin returned, "Sure was, but who are you calling kiddo! My names Will."

Ian looked like he was about to reply, but was cut off as the tannoy suddenly sparked into life. From out of the tannoy came an announcement in a silly, yet somehow creepy voice.

"*Ahem* Attention all students, please report to the assemble point, located at the centre of the top deck, for a class announcement."

Something about that message sent a chill down Jacks spine. He looked over to Ian, who once again had a look of concern plastered on his face.

"This can't be a coincidence. We took the longest with our introductions, and as soon as we introduce ourselves to the last people, this announcement plays."

A glint from the tannoys caught Ian's eye. Looking up he spotted a small camera underneath the tannoy looking down at the students. He pointed it out to Ian, whose look of concern intensified.

"We're being spied on as well! Now I'm completely sure of it, something bad is going on here, but I don't think we have any choice but to play along." The assassin sighed, "In any case, nothing will change by standing around here, c'mon lets go."

The sixteen students all headed towards the left staircase. As they began to descend, Jack had an uneasy feeling that he was witnessing the start of something terrible.


	3. Start of a Nightmare

Jack couldn't help but let out a gasp.

The yacht they were must have been about 500ft long. The deck was covered with fancy looking buildings, and Jack noticed a swimming pool, a tennis court, and even a go kart track. The whole thing must have cost a fortune. Jack knew Hope's Peak got an incredible amount of money from the government, certain corporations and the reserve course students, but he doubted they'd spend so much to get a yacht like this for a mere class trip.

He also had the feeling that he'd seen some of these buildings before, but he didn't know where from. Mel, however, seemed to recognise them straight away.

"Oh my god! That's the Hotel de Paris, and the Monte Carlo casino! That's so totally awesome!"

Jack recognised the names. They were famous buildings in France, all of which were found in Monaco.

"I know this ship!"

Everyone turned to face the one who had spoken up, Ian.

"I read about this in the news a while back. A super luxury yacht called "The Streets of Monaco" had recently been designed. As its name suggests, the Streets of Monaco had replicas of famous landmarks found in Monaco." Ian started pointing towards buildings, "That's the Hotel de Paris, that's the Monte Carlo casino, over there is the Cafe de Paris, that must be La Racasse, and the go kart track is a replica of the Monte Carlo race track." He frowned, "But it was just a design, there weren't any production plans since they hadn't found enough millionaires willing to invest in it. In other words, this ship shouldn't exist."

"Do you think they could have modified another yacht to look like it?" Abasi asked.

"Well it's a possibility, but it would also take a lot of time and money to find and remodel a suitable yacht, more so to keep it out of the news." Ian replied.

"I'm sure the headmaster will give us some answers." said Laura. With that the students continued towards the assembly point.

It didn't take long before the students reached the centre. An expensive looking red podium had been placed there, which had the Hope's Peak academy crest engraved on it in gold. However there was no sign of whoever had called them there, so the students began to talk amongst themselves.

"Hmpf, how dare they keep me waiting."

"What the hell is going on here?

"Where is the headmaster?"

"TO BE LATE TO THEIR OWN RALLY, DISGRACEFUL!"

"Upupu, I'm right here."

The students spun round to face the mysterious voice that came from behind them, but there was no one there. When they turned back, something was standing on the podium.

It looked like a small toy bear. Its right half was white, with a small black eye and cute little smile, however its left half was pitch black, with sharp teeth pulled back in a maniacal grin and a jagged red eye that resembled a lightning bolt. Just when Jack though things couldn't get any weirder, the toy bear spoke in the high pitched, but eerie voice that had played over the tannoy not too long ago

"At last, the star of the show takes the stage. Morning you bastards, I'm the headmaster of Hope's Peak. My names Monobear, put you can call me "Sir" or "Master" or "Handsome Devil" if you prefer.

At once the students started to shout.

"What the hell! Is this some kind of joke?"

"If so, it's not funny."

"Headmaster, that little toy is the headmaster? Yeah right!"

"Hey now, did that bear really just talk?"

"That isn't a real bear is it? It's gotta be a robot of some kind."

"Hey you bastards!" Monobear screeched, "Of course I'm a real bear, what's wrong with a bear being a school teacher?" He sighed, "You'd think that in this day and age people would be more tolerant of other races, it's so sad to see these impressionable young children have been corrupted by societies prejudice. But fear not, as your teacher I won't give up on you until your minds are free of such stereotypes."

"It's not a stereotype!" Harold shouted, "You're a bear, bears aren't smart enough to talk, let alone teach humans."

"Upupu, is that so?" Monobear chuckled. "I think you'll find old Monobear still has a thing or two left to teach you kiddies. That's the whole purpose of this little trip."

Silence fell over the students, Monobear chuckled to himself.

"Upupu, what's the matter? Bear got you tongue? Your all so keen to know about this little class trip eh? Well since I'm such a kind bear I guess I'll tell you."

The bear hopped off the podium and strolled through the throng of students. "On this little boat you'll be playing a game together, a game in which I'll act as overseer and referee. This game will show us at Hope's Peak if you're truly worth spending all that money on, if you're likely to become someone powerful and famous in the future. All Hope's Peak graduates are winners of this game, and they've all gone on to the tops of their respective fields, not just because of the Hope's Peak brand name, but because by winning this little game they've proven they have what it takes to be the best."

Monobear hopped back onto the podium. "It's a simple enough game really; the winner is the one that leaves the yacht."

"That's it?" said Alice, "We just have to get off this ship?"

"Upupu, you'll need to get back to shore as well. But I've made sure that there are worse things than sharks in these waters. If any of you try to make some kind of raft and sail out of here, you'll quickly find yourself turned into fish bait."

"Hold on," said Jack, "if there's no way to cross the ocean, then how are we supposed to escape?"

"Oh don't worry. I'm a kind hearted bear you see, so I'll give you a lift back to shore on my private submarine as a reward."

"A reward for what?" Grace asked.

"If you want the reward, you just have to do one simple, little thing for me." Monobear said with mock innocence. "Kill one of your classmates."

A horrified silence spread over the students. Jack felt a chill pass down his spine. The silence dragged on for what felt like hours.

Then all hell broke loose.

"What the fuck! Are you fucking kidding me!"

"He's joking right? I mean, he can't be serious."

"Like hell anyone here's gonna do something as messed up as that!"

"HOW COULD YOU EVEN JOKE ABOUT SOMETHING LIKE THAT, YOU FIEND?"

"I'm dreaming… I must be dreaming…"

"Upupupupu, don't get your knickers all twisted kiddies. No I'm not kidding, I have enough power to keep you kiddies trapped here until you die of old age, so the only way for you to go free is to play my little game."

"The rules are simple. When one of you wants to leave, then you pick another student and kill them. After the other students find the body then I'll give you all a brief period of time to investigate. Then we all go on a nice little ride to my courtroom, where you'll all debate amongst yourselves who the killer is. At the end of the debate, you'll each get to vote for which student you think is the culprit. The votes will be tallied, and if the majority of people voted for the culprit then I'll punish the culprit for disturbing the peace. However if you vote for the wrong person, or if the culprit and another innocent student are both tied for the highest amount of votes, then then culprit will get to leave this yacht and the rest of you will be punished. You got it? To win this game you need to kill a classmate and hide your guilt from the others."

"And what's the punishment?" Ian asked?

"Why nothing important, nothing big. Just execution!" the bear laughed. "For each and every one of you I've got a custom made, humiliating execution. I put a lot of work into them, so if you correctly guess the culprit I'll even let you watch. Doesn't it sound like fun?"

Jacks blood ran cold. This game was sick, really sick. And though he knew he'd never kill anyone, how could he be sure everyone else felt the same way?

"Don't be absurd!" Nicole shouted at the monochrome bear. "People will notice we've gone, they'll send someone to rescue us."

"Upupupupu GHAHAHAHAHA!" Monobear broke out into a fit of laughter. "Didn't you hear what I said? Each and every Hope's Peak graduate has won this game before, which means they've all murdered a fellow student, and I watched it happen. Hope's Peak has ex-students at the top of political groups, as the heads of media companies, as the leaders of law enforcement services. If I leaked proof onto the internet of how they'd killed another student they'd be locked up for life, everything they had achieved would be lost. So when I tell them to help cover up these little games, they listen. That's the conspiracy behind Hope's Peak academy; all its graduates kill for a life of success, and then help hide my other killing games, which in turn makes more graduates. It's the circle of life."

Jack hated to admit it, but he was right. Hope's Peak graduates could be found at the top of many powerful organisations. If Monobear really did have dirt on each and every one of them, then making sixteen students and a boat disappear would be child's play. But then again, how could Jack be sure Monobear was telling the truth?

"Why? Why would you do this to us?" Alice asked, looking like she was on the verge of tears.

"Huh? Why?" Monobear replied. "Because Hope's Peak needs proof your worth the effort to educate, like I said. That and I enjoy making you suffer."

"You sick little bastard!" Ian growled.

"There are a few more rules to this game to consider that'll stop one of you doing something unfair," Monobear continued, "but I don't have the time to try and explain them all to you airheads, so you can find them on your student ID's. Hmm… I guess I'd better introduce you to the crew as well."

Monobear clapped his paws twice, immediately Monobear replica's walked out from behind buildings and doors and came toward the students. Except these weren't exact replica's, Jack noted. Instead of a jagged right eye, these bears had a button eye, like the eye on the left side but red. They also lacked Monobear's sharp toothed grin, instead then had tiny black lines where their mouths should be, curved up into tiny smiles. However the most noticeable thing about them was their size. Although their heads were the same size as Monobear's, their bodies were thin and tiny like bobble head statues. Jack had to admit that they were kind of cute.

"These guys are the monocrew." Monobear explained. "They'll be handling the cleaning, stocking the shelves, working at the café's and generally keeping this ship shipshape."

One of the monocrew waddled up to Jack and handed a small, black device. It looked like a touch screen phone, with the name 'Jack' engraved at the top in thin, silver writing and a small button on the top right edge. Jack guessed this must be the student ID Monobear mentioned.

As the monocrew waddled off, Monobear spoke up again. "Well that's all for now kiddies. You guys have rooms ready for you in the Hotel de Paris. They'll be a morning announcement at 7:30 each day and a night time announcement at 11, and snacks are available whenever you want them. So make yourselves at home, get comfortable, and get planning your perfect little murder. Let the Cruise of Mutual Killing begin!"

With that the bear jumped behind the podium. Jack and a few other students rushed behind it, he had disappeared.

There was a stunned silence at first. But slowly the students began to panic, their worried voices growing louder and louder.

"This is a dream right? No way is this real."

"He can't really keep us here forever, can he?"

"Alas, this art no more than a fleeting illusion."

"H…Hey, none of you guys are planning a murder, right?"

"Us! What about you! You've been looking shifty from the start."

"Me! If anyone looks like a killer, I'd be that giant over there!"

"M…Me?"

"Oh my god, Oh my god, I don't want to die!"

The students were shouting now. Some hurling accusations at each other, some wallowing in disbelief. Jack tried to calm everyone down, but his voice was drowned out by the noise.

"EVERYONE SHUT UP!"

The students turned back towards the podium, which Ian had leapt on to.

"Get a grip guys! I mean c'mon, we're super high school level students. Are we really gonna let some retarded panda toy get under our skins so easily?"

"You're one to talk!" Harold shouted at him, "You're an assassin aren't you? I bet you've already got a plan to kill each and every one of us!"

"I SAID SHUT UP!" Ian roared. Harold immediately fell silent; for a moment a flash of extreme anger had passed across the assassins face, and Jack had to admit that Ian had looked seriously scary.

Ian took a deep breath, then continued, "Let's all just calm down and think about this rationally. That Monobear creep may have said a lot of things, but no way are they true. I mean come on, Hope's Peak has been around for years, and the whole time it's been forcing its students into killing games? People would have found out ages ago. Besides, how do we even know Hope's Peak is even involved? That bear just announced itself as the headmaster, but as I recall the headmaster is called Jin Kirigiri. The only reason we have to believe him is that the Hope's Peak logo is on this podium. The most likely scenario is that some rich sicko's kidnapped us as we entered the campus and are trying to get us to play this sick game for their amusement, hell they're probably the one controlling that Monobear toy. But people will notice we're missing, they're probably looking for us right now. We just have to sit tight and wait for them."

Ian made a good point, they had no reason to believe Hope's Peak was responsible for their situation. And if they weren't, it wouldn't be long before the authorities came to rescue them. The students calmed down a bit, the initial panic fading.

"For now I think I'd be for the best if we found our rooms and got something to eat." Ian continued. "By the position of the sun I'd say it's about lunch time, and I'm getting hungry. So let's chill out a minute, fill our stomachs, and then explore this ship for anything we can use to get out of here."

Jack was impressed. His new friend had quickly calmed everyone down, made sense of the situation and suggested a plan of action. The other students now looked at him the way they would a leader. There was still a feeling of tension and wariness amongst the group, but for now things seemed a little better. Ian hopped off the podium, and together the group made their way to the Hotel de Paris.

From the entrance hall the Hotel de Paris split into three corridors, the one going directly to the left had the words "Boy's rooms" labelled on the walls, the corridor to the right was labelled "Girl's rooms", and the corridor that lead straight forward was labelled "Dining room."

The group entered the dining room first. It was a lavishly decorated room filled with large, expensive looking tables and chairs. At the back, underneath the enormous, stained glass windows, was a buffet table filled with all kinds of fruits, snacks and chocolates. There was also a blackboard with a menu badly written in chalk, apparently roast chicken would be served at dinner, which was between 5 and 7pm, and tomorrow's breakfast was pancakes between 8 and 10am. At Ian's suggestion, the group agreed to always meet up together for breakfast and dinner, turnout was mandatory unless you had an exceptionally good reason.

The group then split to find their rooms, the ten boys going down the left corridor, and the six girls taking the right. The boy's corridor took a right turn, and then led to doors to each boy's room, five doors lined up on the left side and five on the right. Each door had the students name written on in, with a little picture of a pixilated game character that looked like them underneath. Jack assumed the girls rooms were laid out similarly.

Jack's room was the second on the left, with Will's to his left side and Ian's to his right. To open it, Jack had to hold his student ID next to a scanner on the door handle for a second, then the door would automatically unlock until it was closed again. As he entered, Jack was struck by how extravagant his room was. It was massive, with a desk, a large wardrobe, a sparkly clean bathroom and a 4 poster bed. His room had also been customized to suit him; there was a large white poster with a red cross hanging on the wall, a neat stack of advanced medical equipment by the side of his desk, and many exact copies of the clothes he was currently wearing in the wardrobe. Jack took a small first aid kit and clipped it on to the back of his belt, hoping he wouldn't need to use it.

Jack looked around for a bit until there was a knock on his door. He opened it to find Ian waiting on the other side.

"Hi there." the assassin said. "Can I come in?"

Jack let him in and the two sat down, Jack on his bed and Ian on the desk chair. As he sat down, Ian took out his student ID, "Have you used this yet?"

It had slipped Jacks mind, but he remembered Monobear saying something about the remainder of the rules being on it. As he took it out of his pocket and pressed the button, the screen lit up and turned blue.

A small white box appeared in the centre of the screen with a white thumbprint symbol in the middle of it. Jack pressed his thumb between the box and the device whirred for a bit. Then the screen changed to writing saying "Thumb print accepted. Welcome Player 3: Jack North." Underneath the writing was the pixilated game character that represented Jack.

Ian looked annoyed, he muttered angrily; "That bastard Monobear, he really is treating this like a game. I'm player 2 by the way."

The student ID then flicked to main screen that displayed the time and a number of tabs labelled Map, Rules, Status, File and Exit. Jack pressed the tab labelled "Rules" first, and the screen changed to a page with a few bits of writing on it and a pixilated version of Monobear.

The only way to leave the Yacht is to murder another student and get away with it. When a crime scene is discovered there will be a "class trial", in which the remaining students must discuss amongst themselves who the murderer is. If they successfully figure who murdered the victim and vote for them, the culprit alone will be punished. However, if they are incorrect, or if the culprit and another student are tied for the most votes, the culprit will be able to leave the yacht and everyone else will be punished. Participation in the school trial is mandatory, except if the student has mitigating circumstances approved by the headmaster.

After 2 people (not including the culprit) discover a dead body, a "body discovery announcement" will be broadcast across the yacht. There will then be a brief amount of time to investigate before the class trial starts.

It is strictly forbidden to damage or vandalise anything on the yacht or the yacht itself.

You may only kill two other students.

You may not harm the Headmaster.

You may not litter in the ocean.

The Headmaster will not interfere directly with student activities unless any rules are broken.

You may freely investigate the yacht; no special restrictions will be placed on your activities. Note that power to certain rooms will be disabled during night-time, and some rooms may be locked at the Headmasters discretion.

Failure to adhere to these rules will result in punishment.

New rules may be added at the Headmasters discretion.

"These new rules make things easier for us." Ian said. "Rule 4 will prevent an all-out massacre happening, and rule 6 will make it harder for a culprit to dispose of evidence. Not that I think there are going to be any murders."

Jack pressed a small back arrow in the corner of the screen, which returned to the main menu. The next tab he chose was "Map", and the screen changed to a bird's eye view of the top deck. The area's Jack had already seen were revealed, with the buildings being labelled with their names, however the area's he hadn't seen were blacked out, included the insides of the buildings and the left corridor of the hotel. "The map seems to only show parts of the ship you've already seen." Ian explained.

Next Jack opened the "Status" tab. The screen showed the pixilated icons of all the students going down the page in two columns of 8. Next to each icon was the student's name, talent, player number and the word "Alive" in green.

The tab labelled "File" came up blank, Jack looked at the screen for any hidden meaning, but nothing was apparent.

Last of all Jack pressed "Exit" and the student ID turned off. Ian asked if he could borrow it for a moment, Jack handed it over and Ian turned Jack's student ID on, but when he put his thumb down on the screen nothing happened. He passed it back to Jack, "I guess it can only be unlocked by the user. That means we won't need to worry about them being stolen, and by extension people sneaking into someone else's rooms."

Afterwards the two boys re-joined the rest of the lads, who met up with the girls in the dining room. While everyone grabbed some sandwiches from the buffet table, Ian shared the discoveries on the student ID's with the rest of the group. Afterwards they decided that the rest of the day would be best spent exploring the ship.

"We'll meet back here at 6 for dinner, until then everybody split into groups and explore the area." Ian announced.

With that, the students set out to search the ship. Jack waited for Ian, who insisted of quick snack from the buffet, and the two set out together.


	4. The Streets of Monaco

The first area the two boys arrived at was the triangle shaped swimming pool. It was located right outside their hotel, probably in case a student felt like a midnight swim, and was lined with the same white deckchairs the students had woken up on. Jack had to admit the pool looked refreshing, but couldn't help but think how easy it could be to drown someone with it. He stopped and shook his head, what was he thinking? This wasn't like him.

Will and Alice were already checking out the pool, they greeted the two boys as they approached.

"Hi guys." Alice began, "How goes the investigation?"

"We've only just started." Jack replied. "Ian insisted on getting some food before we left.

"That's because I had to explain the student ID's while you lot were eating." Ian said. "Anyway, anything special about this pool?"

"Not really." Will replied. "It's very clean, and at the perfect temperature, but nothing here seems out place."

"Oh really?" Ian said with a cheeky grin, "I'm not so sure a little kid like you investigated properly."

"Hey, quit callin' me a kid, old man!" Will retorted. He tried to kick the assassin, but Ian dodged with apparent ease. Will tried again, and soon the two ended up in a game of tag, Which Jack and Alice couldn't help but find amusing.

"It's good to know they can still be so carefree even in this situation." Alice said with a light smile. Jack thought that the gardener looked very cute when she smiled. She turned to face him, "And it's also good to know that there are such reliable people in this group, like you."

"Eh, me?" Jack felt a light blush colouring his face. "What do you mean?"

Alice chuckled a little. "Don't think I didn't notice. Earlier, when everyone was panicking after Monobears announcement, you stayed level headed and tried to calm everyone else down. You and Ian have both done a lot for this group already." She glanced over at Ian, who was still being chased by Will, "though you're clearly the more mature one."

If Jack wasn't blushing before, he definitely was now. He personally didn't feel like he had done much so far, so to have such a cute girl complimenting him was unexpected. "Umm well… I haven't really done much though, have I…" he stammered.

Alice smiled again, "And so modest too, you're a really nice guy Jack."

Ian and Will came back to the group, both breathing a little heavier than before. "Not bad kiddo, too bad you've got such tiny legs or you may have caught me." Ian teased.

"And I'm surprised an old man like you could move that fast without a walking stick." Will huffed, a large grin plastered across his face.

With that Jack and Ian said their goodbyes and left. As they went over to the next area, Ian noticed Jack was still red in the face. He grinned slyly, "Looks like I'm not the only one who got his heart racing huh?"

"Shut up." Jack grumbled, embarrassed that he was so easy to figure out.

"Hahaha, you look like a love-struck puppy when either Grace or Alice are around." Ian laughed.

Next the two boys checked out the go kart track. Ian was right; it was a smaller version of the Monte Carlo racetrack, with a small building to house the karts in by the side of the start line. Blake was there, examining the karts when the two boys arrived.

"G'DAY COMRADES!" the pilot bellowed as the boys came near, "I HAVE DISCOVERED SOMETHING WORTHY OF NOTE."

"Guess there's not much point in asking you to be a little quieter, is there?" Jack sighed. Blake roared with laughter, "NO POINT AT ALL, MY VOICE REFLECTS THE STRENGTH OF MY SPIRIT."

"So what's this discovery of yours?" Ian asked. Blake gestured them to follow her, and took them to a row of sixteen go karts.

"I HAVE A LITTLE BIT OF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT GO KARTS. FOR PUBLIC USE, GO KARTS HAVE LIMITERS THAT PREVENT THEM FROM EXCEEDING 16mph, AND THEY NORMALY HAVE A 200cc ENGINE. HOWEVER THIS IS NOT THE CASE WITH THESE CARTS, EACH ONE HAS AN UNRESTRICTED 1100cc ENGINE, WHICH WILL ALLOW THE DRIVER TO GO TO ABOUT 160mph MAXIMUM."

These were some seriously powerful go karts, and that meant seriously dangerous as well. Jack realised that driving a go kart this powerful could lead to a very bad accident. Still though, he really wanted to have a go on one, despite the danger. And from the way Ian was staring at them longingly, Jack guessed he wanted to too.

Blake seemed to share the boy's feelings. "IF WE ARE INDEED TO BE TRAPPED HERE FOR A WHILE, THEN THESE CARTS WILL PROVE EXELLENT FOR RAISING THE SQUAD'S MORAL. I RECOMMEND THAT THE UNIT ALL HAVE A GO ON THESE TOGETHER ONE DAY."

It was a good idea, so Ian said he'd bring up the subject at dinner tonight. With that the boys said farewell to Blake and headed over to the tennis courts.

The tennis court was right at the back of the ship. Jack had assumed there were two tennis courts when he saw them from a distance earlier, however he now noticed that wasn't the case. On the left side was a regular sized tennis court, which was covered in AstroTurf and had a box of tennis rackets and balls near the entrance. However the court on the right wasn't actually a court, it was a helicopter pad. There was no equipment on it, just a red circle with a H inside it painted on the AstroTurf.

This explained why there was no fence around the tennis court, it may have caused problems for any landing helicopters, and Jack doubted the rich people this ship was designed for would care how many tennis balls they left littering the ocean. He realised this meant the students shouldn't play tennis, if they accidentally hit a ball into the ocean they would have broken rule 6 and could be punished.

Grace was currently investigating the tennis court, and upon seeing her Jack felt his pulse quicken just a little. The boys thought she hadn't noticed them at first, however as they approached she spoke to them without looking away from the racket box she was examining.

"How goes the search?"

"Not to great I'm afraid." Ian replied. "No sign of anything we can use to escape or signal for help yet, we did find some kick ass go karts though."

"Yes I heard, 1100 ccs are they?"

Both boys looked at her in surprise. The go kart track was pretty far away, yet Grace had been able to hear their conversation."

"Don't act so surprised" Grace said, noticing the looks on the two boys faces. "I am the super high school level sensor after all; with my ears I can hear everyone on this deck if I try." Her eyebrows furrowed a bit, "And even If I wasn't trying I'd be able to hear Blake, she is quite loud. Standing nearby her when she 'talks' is not a pleasant experience."

Jack made a mental note to not underestimate the sensors abilities. But it looked like there was nothing of note at the tennis court, so the boys decided to move on to the Monte Carlo casino.

As they arrived at the casino, Monobear jumped out in front of them from out of nowhere.

"What's this? Two underage youths trying to sneak into a casino? Tsk tsk, I'd expected better of you."

"Don't give us that crap!" Jack spat back, "It say's in the rules that we can freely investigate the yacht."

Monobear put his paw on his chin, "Well I guess that's true. But did you really think I'd allow any illegal activities under my supervision. People might think I'm a bad teacher or something." He said with mock innocence.

Jack wasn't in a good enough mood to comment on the irony of that sentence.

"Well luckily for you, this isn't a casino anymore." the bear continued. "To keep temptation out of your way, I remodelled the place. I figured you kids would want a variety of sharp or pointy objects to do each other in with, so being the caring and considerate bear I am, I decided to turn this casino into a shop."

"A shop? What kind of shop?" Ian asked.

"A general store, obviously. Well In guess it's more like a supermarket. You can buy a variety of things from here; clothes, tools, books. Anything that'll help you little tykes to up and murder someone already." Monobear replied.

"We've already told you, we aren't going to murder anyone" Ian growled.

"Upupupu. They all say that at the start, the other classes I mean." Monobear chuckled. "They all think that there's no way they'd murder someone else, however it's never very long before someone has the first go. I do usually have to offer a little incentive first though, and once I do they start dropping like flies."

"Other classes? What other classes? What do you mean by an incentive?" Jack asked.

"What's this? Sounds like someone's keen, have you already got a plan in mind to murder someone Jackie?" Monobear taunted. "Like I've told you, I'm a powerful bear, so I like to offer a little encouragement to get the murder ball rolling. Maybe I offer a prize to the next killer, maybe I threaten you all with something, maybe I take away something you can't live without until one of you caves in. Either way when I cook up an incentive, you can be sure that the funs about to begin."

"I don't believe you." Ian stated. "You may be powerful, but don't think any of us will give in to you so easily."

"Upupupu we'll see about that" Monobear chuckled. "I'll be popping up a little bit later to give you guys your first motive. Until then, see you later losers." With that the psychopathic toy waddled off behind a nearby bin and vanished. Jack had no idea how he was able to do that, but he found it really irritating.

"Just ignore him" said Ian. "He's trying to get under our skin, but we won't give him the satisfaction." He looked at the casino entrance, "Anyway, he said this place is a shop now, I wonder if we'll have to use currency of some kind? For now we should check the place out."

"I guess you're right." Jack replied. "But he mentioned other classes. Do you think there are other groups of students who have been trapped like us?"

"He's just trying to get us to believe in that bullshit story of his about each previous Hope's Peak class playing a game like this." Ian replied. "Ignore him, he's trying to mess with your head. Nothing like this could have happened before."

As Jack and Ian entered the shop, they found themselves in a fancy looking entrance hall. They were approached by Noah, and after the boys exchanged greeting they took a tour of the shop, with Noah providing commentary about what they'd found out.

"The shop has two floors. From the entrance hall there are two locked staff rooms on the left and right, and a corridor opposite the entrance. This corridor has the entrances to six equality sized rooms, three on each side, that sell all kinds of goods."

The boys looked in at the products being displayed on the isles. There were items ranging from kitchenware to exercise machines, things you'd expect from a large superstore. Jack couldn't help but eye the merchandise warily, wondering what things could potentially be used by someone as a murder weapon. The boys noticed that the ceilings in the first two rooms were about twice as high, and that there were balconies half way up the walls that stretched round the room.

Noah explained, "At the end of the main corridor is a staircase that leads up to the second floor. The second floor has the same layout as this one; three rooms on each side, but for some reason the rooms above these ones are balconies, so you can look down on the floor below. They're the only connected rooms; I think the books and magazines are kept there."

"You said the second floor has the same layout, so what's above the entrance hall?" Jack asked.

"Another locked staff room. I guess Monobear doesn't want us going in there." Noah replied.

The boys spent a while idly browsing a few rooms, but there was so much stuff that they didn't have time to examine it all. Solomon and Laura were in the shop too, and the five of them chatted for a while about their discoveries.

"There may be something useful we can use here to send a signal or escape." Noah pointed out.

"That's true, with all this stuff here there must be some way to send a message." Ian replied.

"There are a lot of tools in here, for building and sculpting and stuff." Solomon added. He looked a little happy; Jack guessed he must feel more at ease in a room with the equipment he needed to do his sculpting.

"There's nothing especially dangerous in here, is there?" Jack asked.

"There are a lot of knives and hammers about, but no guns or explosives." Laura said. "But then again this is a big shop, we've barely explored the first floor, let alone the second. Come to think of it, Monobear showed up earlier and said there's a special weapon waiting in the staff room on level two, but that he'll only give the key to a special someone."

"He probably means someone that's willing to commit murder, that bastard!" Ian muttered.

Jack realized something, "Come to think of it, isn't this place a bit small?"

The others looked at him quizzically, so Jack continued.

"On the outside, this building looked a bit taller. Maybe there's another floor."

Ian smiled, "Come to think of it you're right, there might be an attic or something at the top. Well spotted Jack. Is it just me, or do you seem particularly good at noticing things like that?"

"I am a paramedic," Jack replied, "when I come across a medical situation I have to make sure to notice even the tiniest details or they might lead to trouble later."

With that Jack and Ian decided to leave, the other stayed behind to keep looking at the products in the shop.

The next places the boys had to check out were the cafes. The closest one to them was the replica of "La Racasse", so they looked in there first.

It was set out the way you'd expect a high class French café would be. The building was full of small tables with expensive looking cutlery and crockery set out on them. There was a counter in the far corner that displayed a variety of cakes and sandwiches, where a lone monocrew was standing on a stool behind the till. Jack also noticed that there was a pile of newspapers of the counter, and a flat screen TV had been hung on one of the top corners of the room.

Rokaku was sitting on one of the tables drinking a cup of tea. As the boys entered she looked up at them, a flash of annoyance crossed her face.

"It seems even on a ship this big I can find no respite from the company of imbeciles." she complained.

Ian gave her a withering look. "Just who I wanted to meet." he said sarcastically.

Jack felt a little uncomfortable. The assassin and the entrepreneur were glaring at each other like two feral animals before a fight. The mutual dislike between the two was intense, and Jack didn't want to get caught in the middle of it.

"Have you been loafing around here all day, or has her highness actually found anything useful?" Ian asked rudely.

Rokaku shot him a spiteful look, "Actually yes. The TV in the corner only plays one channel, some ridiculous news show Monobear made. And the newspapers here are called "The Beary Times", which has a new issue released daily. Both of these are full of made up stories, some about depressing murders and tragedies, other that are clear insults to certain students." She passed the newspaper on her table to Jack, "Read the headline."

As Jack looked at the front page, he realized exactly what Rokaku meant. The front page had a picture of Jack that had been edited to make him look cross eyed, and was titled " _Jack North takes an IQ test, results turn up negative."_ It was clear that Monobear had made this article to annoy him, which made Jack even angrier since it had worked. Ian asked to see it and (after supressing a fit of giggles) pointed out that there was no date written on it, or anything that could give them a clue as to their current situation.

The two boys took a quick look around, but there was nothing else noteworthy about the café. Not wanting to give Rokaku and Ian the chance to go at each other's throats again, Jack quickly ushered Ian towards the exit and the two of them headed to the Café de Paris.

"Those newspapers could be helpful." Ian pondered. "If the mastermind behind this game slips up and prints a clue about our situation in the newspaper someday then we could gain an invaluable clue about our situation. I think I'll put some time aside each day to read the latest issue." He gave Jack a cheeky grin, "Besides, if there are more headlines like that, it could prove quite entertaining."

The Café de Paris was similar to La Racasse, albeit with different, but still very expensive and fancy looking decorations. Just like in La Racasse there was a pile of newspapers, a TV in the corner and a single monocrew behind the counter.

Abasi and Mel were in the Café. Mel was running about excitedly, looking from one thing to another with a fascinated gleam in her eyes. Abasi was sitting down with his arms folded and his eyes shut, a look of irritation spread across his face.

When Jack and Ian entered Mel grabbed a newspaper and charged towards Jack. She held it up to his face with a childish grin, "Read this!" she insisted.

"I already have." Jack said, making his displeasure clear in his voice. "It wasn't funny the first time."

"Oh lighten up." Ian said cheerfully. "It's just a taunt, no one here will take it seriously if you don't."

"Have you two found any clues yet?" Abasi said plainly, clearly trying to change the subject to something more relevant.

"Nothing important, we've been going to all the areas and asking about everybody else's progress." Jack replied. "Is there anything about this place that's different from La Racasse other than the décor?"

"Not really, no." Abasi said. "You might be better off joining the others at a different location if you've already explored the other café."

"Speaking of which, where did Harold, Raulf, Nicole and Patrick go?" Jack asked. "I haven't seen them around."

"As I recall Nicole and Patrick went to investigate the helm, and Harold and Raulf went in that direction." Abasi said, pointing towards a flight of stairs nearby that went lower down into the ship.

There was nothing special about the Café de Paris, so Jack and Ian spent a little time chatting with Mel (and a rather stoic Abasi) then headed off towards the flight of stairs Abasi had pointed to earlier.

The boys descended down the short flight of stairs, and soon came across Harold and Raulf. The stairs twisted right and continued down, however a thick metal shutter was blocking the way. The magician and the playwright were both trying to pull the shutter up, yet it wouldn't budge.

"Accursed thing, is naught but a legion sufficient to expel thee from mine path?" Raulf muttered to the shutter.

"What was that? Ah man, why'd I have to pair up with you?" Harold moaned. A perverted grin crossed over his face, "Maybe I should go see if Grace or Alice need any company."

The two of them were so focused on lifting the shutter that they didn't notice Jack and Ian approach. Ian snuck up behind them (without making a single sound, Jack noted) and whispered "Boo" in their ears. The pair jumped at the sound, and frantically turned around to see a smirking Ian and Jack trying his hardest not to laugh.

"Hey man, don't sneak up on us like that!" Harold grumbled. Raulf nodded in agreement.

"Sorry, sorry. I just couldn't help myself." Ian apologised. He looked at the shutter, "What can you tell me about this?"

"Its monstrous form shall allow us no passage." Raulf sighed. Jack figured that must mean "We can't get past" in normal English.

"It came down from the ceiling," Harold noted, "so I guess there's some kind of motor that will lift it. I bet that fucker Monobear has the remote control for it."

"Is this the only way to go down to the next level?" Jack asked.

"We took a quick look around, but this seems to be the only staircase on this deck." Harold replied. "There might be some kind of secret passage or something we don't know about though."

"Hey, maybe that's how Monobear keeps disappearing!" exclaimed Jack.

Ian looked like he was about to reply, but was cut off by a familiar, annoying voice.

"Did someone call?"

Jack looked behind him to see Monobear. He briefly though that at this distance he could probably kick the toy bear with quite a lot of force, but decided it was best to not risk being punished.

"It wouldn't be much of a game without levels, now would it?" Monobear chirped. "Once we finish a class trial, then I'll open up a new area for you guys."

"Is that you motive?" Ian glared at the bear with contempt, "You think we'll commit murder so that we can go down a floor. Why I expected something better from you I don't know."

"No no no, you've got it all wrong." Monobear laughed gaily. "The next floor down is unlocked as a prize to you students if you successfully complete a classroom trial. You know sometimes I worry I'm too nice a bear for my own good, I take you guys on a the trip of a lifetime in a luxury yacht, I buy all your food, I spoil you with all these prizes, yet when I ask you to perform one teensy little murder you guys get all stroppy and complain. It's really quite depressing." A crocodile tear rolled down Monobears eye, "I've spoiled you guys rotten. If I didn't have such a big heart, I'd say some discipline was in order."

"Don't speak about a human life like it's something that can just be thrown away!" Jack snapped angrily. "All life is priceless. It doesn't matter what you try to bribe or threaten us with, we'll never play along with your game."

"Urgh, figures a paramedic would be such a wet blanket. All life is priceless? You're so full of goodness and hope it makes me want to puke. And I had my favourite fish for dinner as well." Monobear groaned.

"If you have nothing else to say then scram, else I might start using your head as a football." Ian threatened. Monobear began to sweat slightly and back off, "Alright, alright, I'm going. Jeez, kids these days are so violent. I blame videogames." Monobear grumbled as he shuffled off.

After that the boys decided they'd gain nothing further from investigating the shutter and climbed the stairs back to the top deck. From there they split up, Jack and Ian going to the helm, and Harold and Raulf going back to the hotel.

The helm was the last place left to explore. When the boys arrived, they weren't surprised to see Nicole and Patrick bickering again. The cop and robber were standing outside the door, arguing about something that Jack didn't want to get involved with.

Deciding to cut their argument short, Ian greeted the squabbling pair. "Afternoon guys, how come you're not investigating the helm?"

The pair stopped quarrelling for a moment and faced the newcomers. "We can't get the stupid door to open." Patrick grunted "If I could find the right equipment I could probably get it open, but even if I did miss stick-in-the-mud here refuses to let me do anything."

"Breaking and entering is a crime no matter where you are." Nicole snapped. "Just because Monobear is breaking the law is no excuse for any of us to do the same."

Patrick sighed. "You see what I have to put up with!"

"Listen Nicole, I think it's great and all that your sticking to your beliefs no matter what, but there could be an important clue in there." Jack reasoned. "We'll need Patrick's skills to get in there, so do you think you could let it slide this once considering the circumstances?"

The cop though about it for a moment, then sighed, "I guess you're right. Very well, I'll permit you trespass on private property this once, but I'll be keeping close supervision."

"In any case you'll have to find the right equipment first, did Monobear leave anything you could use in your room?" Ian asked.

"Nope" Patrick replied, "I gotta lot of fancy equipment for security doors and the like, but no good old fashion lock picks. And guess what, this door uses a plain and simple lock."

"Perhaps there some in the shop, or at least something you can use as a substitute, but in any case its best we leave things here for now." Ian said as he glanced at the time on his student ID. "Dinners about to be served and it's starting to get dark. There are a few things I'd like to organise, so let's hold off on breaking into here until another time."

The others agreed, and the group headed back to the hotel for dinner.


	5. Motivation

That night the students had their first meal together. The monocrew had cooked and served roast chicken and sides for each student, though everyone was suspicious of the food until Grace used her sense of smell to confirm there was nothing abnormal added to it.

The group were all seated around a large 16 person table in the centre of the dining room. Once everyone had eaten their fill, Ian stood up and started the group's first meeting.

"Ok guys." he began, "As you all know, our main priority is to find some way of either escaping this ship or sending a signal to the people looking for us, and if possible catch the mastermind behind this mess. With that in mind our first task is to get ourselves organised, and I feel the best way to do that is to elect one person as our leader, someone who can organize everyone's efforts towards a common goal. So, does anyone object to me being our group's leader?"

There were no objections; Ian had proven himself to be a good leader in the aftermath of Monobears class announcement. Ian grinned, "Awesome. In that case my first act as leader is to appoint Jack as deputy."

"Huh, what!" Jack felt uncomfortable as all eyes fixed on him, "Why me?"

"Because I can trust you, you can keep a calm head in tense situations, and I think you'd make a good leader in case anything happens to me." Ian explained. "Not that I think anything will happen of course, I'm sure that no one here is gonna play that stupid bears game. Now then, the second item of business. Can everyone please give a report on their findings from the investigations this morning."

One by one the students stood up and relayed to the group what they'd discovered about the top deck. Jack had already heard everyone's reports, so sat patiently until everyone had finished. Afterwards the group discussed a variety of things, such as the go karts, and the items in their rooms. As the subject turned towards if Monobear had said to any individual students, the monochrome teddy himself dropped down onto the centre of the table.

"Surprise kiddies. Wait, what's this? You're all still alive!" He sighed, "Now this isn't good, not good at all. I thought one of you guys would have killed for fun by now. Come on, you know you want to."

"Oh great, it's Winnie the Upupu." Ian snarled. "Tell me, is your ass jealous of the amount of shit that just came out of your mouth?"

"Ouch, scathing!" Monobear replied with mock indignation. "Do you really hate your dear teacher so much?"

"Hate isn't strong enough to describe it." Ian replied harshly. "If you were on fire and I had a bucket of water, I'd drink it!"

A crocodile tear rolled down Monobears cheek. "How cruel" he whimpered, "and after I went out of my way to arrange a present for you brats. I don't know what I did to deserve having to put up with you bastards for the foreseeable future."

"What present? What are you talking about?" Jack asked.

"Upupupu, peaked your curiosity eh?" Monobear chuckled. "I told you about it before didn't I? I'm here to give you guys your first motive."

"Then you may as well piss off!" Will spat. "None of us are interested in anything _you_ have to offer, so get lost."

"Well tough luck!" Monobear shouted, suddenly looking pissed off. "I've taken enough of you bastards lip for one day, so shut your traps unless you want some punishment."

Stunned by his sudden outburst the students fell silent, though many of them glared at Monobear with defiant eyes.

"That's more like it. Now then, on to the motive." Monobear said cheerfully. A monocrew waddled up to the table and handed Monobear a pile of photos, which the sadistic bear spread out on the table. One of the pictures was of an incredible expensive looking mansion next to a beach, another was of a garage full of expensive cars, another of a group of butlers and maids."

"My first motive is everything you see here and more." Monobear explained. "When you get back to civilisation I'll give you all these wonderful things, and I'll pay for anything you want for the rest of your life. Food, education, holidays; I'll buy whatever you want until the day you die."

The students were stunned. They'd expected some sort of bribe, but this was beyond anything they had imagined. Monobear was offering them an entire lifetime of luxury, to make good on his promise would cost the bear billions.

"Tis a trick!" Raulf exclaimed, the first to get over the initial shock. "Thou canst possibly possess such populous wealth. Thine offer art merely an illusion."

"He's calling you a liar." Ian translated, "And I agree. There's no way you could make do on such a promise. Knowing you this is probably a trick, you said you'd get whatever we wanted for the rest of our lives, so you're probably planning on killing the culprit when they claim their reward."

Monobear sighed again, seeming oddly calm. "Would you listen to yourself ' _leader'_? Look around you, how do you think I got this yacht? How to you think I got a crew of highly trained bears? How do you think I'm able to keep all this a secret from the world? You said "knowing you", but the truth is you don't know a thing about me. I hold all the cards here, and I have enough money and power to offer this motive a hundred times over, I don't need to resort to tricks. The next person to commit murder _will_ have the reward I promised them. Perhaps it's time I made you bastards realise just who it is your dealing with."

The bear paused for a minute, turning to look each and every one of the students directly in the eyes before continuing.

"When you bastards woke up here, the last thing you remember was entering Hope's Peak campus right? However some of you may have noticed that your bodies don't feel exactly like they used to."

Monobear was right; Jack had noticed his body felt different when he awoke, though he had passed it of as an aftereffect of being drugged.

"There's a simple reason for this: they've grown. You guys think that this is the first time you've met, that you first entered Hope's Peak only a few days ago. But you're wrong, dead wrong." An evil grin crept up on Monobears face, "You guys have all been classmates for a while now; you've been taking classes, doing activities, and creating wonderful memories together for quite some time."

Monobear broke out into another fit of laughter. "Upupupupupupupu. But I've taken all that from you. You see I've stolen your memories!"

The students were frozen with shock. Jack couldn't believe it! It was impossible to steal someone's memories, wasn't it?

The more he thought about it, the more likely it sounded. It explained everything, why his memory seemed to just suddenly cut off, why his body felt different. It was still difficult to comprehend though, how had Monobear stolen a part of his memories, a part of his life?

After what felt like an eternity of silence, Laura spoke up. "H… How? How is that possible? How can you do that?"

"How?" Monobear replied. "The how doesn't matter, maybe I used hypnosis, or a machine, or some kind of lobotomy. What matters is that although you guys may feel like complete strangers, the truth is you're not. I've taken away your precious memories of your time together. I won't tell you how long it's really been since you first entered the academy, what matters is that I'll only return your memories to you if you win my game. I'm the one calling the shots here, so when I say that I can give you a life of luxury you'll take it as gospel truth, got that!?"

"You're lying… you must be lying…" Alice quietly muttered.

"You know that isn't true." Monobear replied. "You can pretend you think I'm lying if you want, but it's time you all let go of any hope of getting out of here without playing my game."

The bear suddenly seemed to change back into his usual, light-hearted mood. "Man, I really spoil you guys rotten don't I? Think of all the prizes I'm offering for a murder now! I mean you get to graduate from Hope's Peak, live a life of luxury _and_ get your memories back. I mean c'mon, how can you guys resist such tasty bait? I wonder who'll break first? What devious tricks could a murderous magician cook up? Who could survive the trap of a serial killer snake charmer? Is anyone safe when an assassin's out to get them? Boy oh boy, the suspense is killing me!"

There was no reply, no insult. The students were caught in the grip of despair. It was only now the true gravity of their situation sunk in; Monobear was just too powerful for them. He could take away their memories, offer the students unlimited wealth, who was to say he couldn't keep them all locked up here for ever?

"Upupupu, looks like you kiddies have a lot to think about. Well I'll leave you little tykes to it." Monobear laughed before disappearing under the table.

A long silence dragged out again, the 16 students reeling in the revelation shared with them. Eventually Jack couldn't stand the silence any longer and spoke up.

"He's lying… I mean it just isn't possible to remove people memories like that."

"I wish I could agree with you Jack." Ian replied. "I really do… but…" The assassin couldn't finish his sentence. From the looks on everyone's faces, it was clear that they all knew it was true.

However Jack was determined not to give up. That feeling that drove him to save other people lives, that drove him to become a paramedic in the first place, was flaring up now. He couldn't stand watching his friends despair like this, he had to do something.

"Ok, so maybe he can take our memories away. But that doesn't prove he's been telling the truth!" he began. The sudden vigour in his words seemed to catch the attention of the other students, who looked up at him.

"I mean this still doesn't prove that he works for Hope's Peak, or that there's no one coming to rescue us. He's made quite an impressive display of power, but never given us evidence that anything else he's said is true." Jack continued. Looking around, he saw the flame of hope beginning to light up again in everyone's eyes."

"Besides,he said we're all friends right? Even if we have forgotten our time at Hope's Peak, the things we did together still happened. That's one more reason why none of us will give in to him, because even if we have forgotten it, we share a bond, a bond of friendship. We can beat that monochrome freak and all get out of this together."

"He's right" Solomon said, standing up. "If we're all friends, that's all the more reason to stick together."

"WooHoo! Way to go Jackie boy!" Mel whooped, "For a while there I felt a little bummed out, but now I'm back in fighting shape!"

One by one the students stood up, each one refilled with determination. The only ones who remained seated were Abasi (who Jack swore had the faintest smile on his lips) and Rokaku.

"Don't be so sure of that!" Rokaku remarked. "Friends we may be, but the promise of wealth isn't something so easily resisted by commoners such as you. If make take a while, but eventually someone's going to give in to temptation." She readjusted the glasses on her face, "I can assure you though that it won't be me, there is nothing Monobear can offer me I cannot already obtain with my own finances."

"If you gonna be a smartass, Rokaku, first so have to be smart. Otherwise you're just an ass." Ian retorted. He readdressed the rest of the group. "Jack's right. I have faith in everyone here. I know that none of us will give in to that little shit, no matter what he promises us."

Hope now burned in the student's hearts. They encouraged and re assured each other that no matter what, they'd all stick together.

"TOGETHER WE WILL SURELY PREVAIL IN OUR STRUGGLE AGAINST TYRANNY!"

"Indeed, justice is on our side. We will bring Monobear to the full extent of the law!"

"If we all work together there's no way we can lose."

With high spirits the students returned to their rooms. It wasn't particularly late, but it was too dark outside to explore the ship anymore, and it had been a long day for the students. As Jack headed down the boys corridor Ian caught up with him.

"Nicely done deputy. I'll admit, I had given in for a moment. But then you went and turned the whole situation upside down." He smiled, "Thanks Jack, I think everybody here owes you one."

"It was nothing, really." Jack replied, a little embarrassed about being thanked so much for saying a few words.

"Don't say it was nothing, you created a sense of unity between us. If we're gonna have any chance of beating Monobear then we need to be a team." Ian said.

"But it's not like I did anything special."

"Geez, enough with the being humble already. Your way to modest for your own good, be a little proud of yourself."

"Alright, alright, I will."

"Good man." Ian said, smiling. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you then." Jack replied as Ian headed off towards his room.

After that, Jack spent the rest of the day in his room. As the adrenalin rush faded, Jack realised just how tired he really was. He lay down and tried to get some sleep, but with his head now clear, Jack realised there was a cold, hard feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach.

 _Monobear is to powerful._

 _No one's coming to save us._

 _We're all going to die here._

These were the fears and doubts Jack had that he didn't want to admit to anyone, that he didn't want to admit to himself. As much as the students assured each other it would all be fine, he knew that in private they were all scared and suspicious of each other.

Worst of all was that feeling Jack kept deep down, the one Jack couldn't ever bring himself to accept.

 _One of us is going to kill someone. Eventually someone is going to break._

 _What if it's me?_

With that though crossing through his mind, Jack fell into a fitful sleep.


	6. The First Day

"*Ahem*

Good morning you bastards. It's now 7:30, so rise and shine. Make sure you enjoy another glorious day on the Streets of Monaco."

The announcement sounded from a small tannoy in one of the top corners of Jack's room, waking the paramedic from his sleep.

He was glad to be awake; he'd had a horrible nightmare that he'd been trapped on a yacht by an evil teddy and told to kill a bunch of strangers.

Wait? Where was he?

Jack looked around; this was unmistakably the room he'd been given on the yacht in his nightmare.

He groaned; he hadn't been dreaming, he really was stuck of this god forsaken yacht.

Then what had he been dreaming about? Jack concentrated, yet as much as he tried he couldn't remember. It was something about a black void, but what?

Whatever it was, it didn't matter now. The announcement had said it was 7:30, and the group was going to meet at breakfast, which was at 8.

Still feeling tired, Jack dragged himself out of bed and got ready. By 8:15 he was ready to go, but took a quick look in the mirror first.

He still felt fatigued, and it showed. There were faint black bags under his eyes, and his hair seemed messier than usual. Even his ahoge flopped down a little bit, like the tail of a sad dog. Too tired to care about fixing his appearance, Jack headed to the dining room.

When he arrived he found he wasn't the only one who hadn't got a good night's sleep. Several of the other students who were already there had dark circles under their eyes and shuffled around wearily.

By contrast there was a small group that seemed full of energy. Mel, Will, Blake and Alice were sitting around a small table chatting energetically about some kind of TV show. Jack couldn't help feel a little envious that the four of them had so much energy to burn. He went up to the buffet table, where a huge stack of pancakes and a wide variety of topping were spread out. Ian was at the buffet table, eyeing a tub of butter cautiously.

"Morning Ian, sleep well?" Jack asked as he approached.

"Nah, couldn't stop thing about… you know, out situation." Ian replied. Though he wasn't exactly energetic, Ian didn't seem at all affected by a lack of sleep.

"Why are you staring at the butter like that?" Jack asked.

"It's out of place, is all." Ian replied, passing it over for Jack to see. "Everything else here labelled in English, but for some reason the butter is Japanese."

Jack looked at it; the butter had a picture of a tough looking Japanese man with weird, corncob shaped hair. All the writing on it was Japanese, which Jack couldn't even begin to translate.

"Huh, that is pretty weird, but we were all going to a school in Japan so I guess it's not that strange."

"I guess I'm probably just making a big deal out of nothing. In the end it's just butter, can't be all that bad." Ian said.

The two boys got their breakfast and sat down. They chatted as the students trickled in one by one.

"Man, this butter tastes great!" Ian remarked. "It just melts in your mouth, what's in this stuff?"

"Maybe you could ask around and see if anyone can read the packaging." Jack suggested. "Someone here must have tried to learn Japanese after they were invited to Hope's Peak."

"Maybe somebody learnt the basics, but they wouldn't need to." Ian replied. "The X class building was designed for foreign students, so everything's written in English, and the teachers are from all over the world so very few of them are fluent in Japanese. The only time it'd come in handy would be if we went into the city, but the X Class building is like a campus within a campus, and apparently has everything we could ever need, so students rarely go there. I only bothered to learn a few odd words."

"Wow, Hope's Peak sounds like a pretty awesome school!" Jack said cheerfully. He briefly wondered what Hope's Peak was doing about their kidnappings. Were they trying to find them? Or was Monobear telling the truth about them being responsible for this situation?

Over time the rest of the students trudged in. Though almost everyone seemed drained to begin with, breakfast made the students liven up a bit.

Once everyone had finished eating Ian called a quick group meeting. There was nothing major to report, Noah had discovered that after the night time announcement the water was shut off, and Solomon had tried to break his student ID but found it was virtually indestructible. Afterwards the students went their own ways.

Jack hadn't thought about it before, but he now realised that since the top deck had been explored there wasn't much to do, he had a lot of free time on his hands. Ian had gone back to his room after breakfast, saying that he did about two hours of training every morning, so Jack decided to socialise with the other students for the rest of the day. With that in mind he wandered around the top deck, resolved to have a chat with the first person he met.

This resolve didn't last for very long. The first people Jack came across were Patrick and Nicole, but the two of there were, as usual, bickering like an old married couple, so Jack decided not to get involved. After walking around a bit longer Jack encountered Abasi outside of La Racasse.

"Hi Abasi." Jack said, remembering to keep a safe distance from the snake charmer. "What're you doing?"

"Good morning Mr North." Abasi replied with his usual austere expression. "I was about get a drink at this café."

"Mind if I join you?" Jack asked. The snake charmer seemed to be the most distant of the group, and Jack figured this might be a good chance to get to know him before he isolated himself any further.

Abasi thought about it for a moment. "Very well." he eventually replied. "But please keep in mind at all times to not come too close." As if to emphasize his point, a hissing sound emanated from his robes.

The two spent some chatting about various subjects. After a while Jack decided to ask Abasi more about his talent, after all it was certainly unusual. As he brought up the subject though, a slight pained expression crept up upon Abasi face.

"My talent is a… delicate subject Mr North." Abasi began. There was a hint of sadness in his voice.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Jack stuttered, feeling like an idiot for so bluntly bringing what was clearly a very sensitive topic up. "You can just tell me I'm being nosy and ignore me if you want."

Abasi gave him a small, sad smile. "No, it's ok Mr North. I understand you only wish for everyone to understand each other and get along." He paused and thought for a moment, then continued. "Very well. I shall tell you my tale."

"My talent surfaced when I was about the age of five. Up until that point I had lived a normal life, I grew up on a farm with my mother who raised me by herself. We were a poor family, but we were happy and had strong relations with our village community.

However one day a snake followed me home for no apparent reason. Nobody was quite sure why, but thought it was no big deal. We all assumed it would go away after a while.

But instead of going away the snake became more protective of me. It started to lash out at anyone who came to close, my mother included. The village scraped together some money to have an expert come and help, however all they could tell us was that the snake had formed some kind of strange attachment to me.

Over the next few months more snakes came, each one refusing to leave no matter what I or anyone else did to chase them away. By this point relationships were tense, my mother was sick with worry that something was happening to me, yet she couldn't so much as touch me without the snakes biting her. The other villagers also began to avoid me, rumours that I was some kind of witch circulated, and I eventually found myself ostracised. Things only got worse with time, my mother was beginning to go mad with stress, and some people talked about exiling me from the village to send the snakes away.

Life became very lonely for me. With no one else to talk to I eventually started to treat the snakes as my pets. This didn't help to rumours about me, but needed some sort of friends and the snakes were the only ones around.

I was eight when I first learned about snake charming, a passing traveller taught it to me in an attempt to coax the snakes away from me. I took to it quickly, and was soon able to command my snakes expertly; I could even get them to move away from me for a short time. However by then my mother had suffered a mental breakdown and so much as acknowledging my presence was bad for her health. The other villagers only made contact with me when absolutely necessary; I was truly a social outcast from my village.

I left my village and went to travel the world. I spent many years as a street performer with my snake charming abilities, and quickly became more and more famous. Recently I received my invitation to join Hope's Peak, and that's how I became the super high school level snake charmer."

For a few seconds Jack was silent. He had never considered a talent to be anything but a gift, yet in Abasi's case it was a curse.

"I'm so sorry…" he began. He felt terrible for bringing up such a painful subject for Abasi.

"Do not be, the fault lies not with you Mr North." Abasi replied, his tone still sombre. Jack looked into the snake charmers eyes and saw them filled sorrow, and something else he couldn't recognize as well. "It is simply my destiny to be alone, I have accepted that."

"But things are different now!" Jack suddenly proclaimed. Abasi seemed taken aback by Jack's sudden burst of vigour. "You're not alone anymore." Jack continued. "Everyone here is talented as well, and that's made us all slightly weird. Yet because of that we can understand each other. That's why if you try, I'm sure everyone here will accept you as their friend."

For a brief moment Abasi sat stunned, unsure as to how to reply. The driving feeling Jack had disappeared, and he slowly became aware of what he had just said. Suddenly embarrassed, Jack's face turned red and he stuttered "Umm… I mean… well…"

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

Abasi broke out into a deep laughter, cutting Jack off. Jack would have been embarrassed if he wasn't so surprised, he hadn't figured Abasi as the type who'd ever laugh.

The snake charmer continued laughing for a while, so much that a few tears rolled down his cheeks. A while passed before the laughing finally subsided and Abasi wiped the tears from his eyes.

"Thank you, I haven't laughed in a long time and was beginning to think I had forgotten how." Abasi said, smiling at Jack. "You talent suits you, you really are a kind person. You're right, bizarre as this situation may be; it gives me the opportunity to make friends."

Abasi stood up. "I've not felt this hopeful in a long time. I hope I shall be considered a friend by the others, as I hope you now consider me."

"Of course I do." Jack replied. He wasn't quite sure what he had done, but he was glad that Abasi had cheered up.

"I'll take my leave now. Thank you Jack." Abasi said as he left the café.

Jack was pleased. He felt he'd got to know Abasi a little better, and he was glad he could now call Abasi a friend. It was about lunch time now, so Jack ate a sandwich from the café and left to find someone else to talk with.

Not long later Jack ran into Harold. The magician was sitting on a deckchair by the pool looking downhearted, and didn't seem to notice as Jack approached.

"What's up?" Jack asked.

"JESUS CHRIST!" Harold jumped, he leaped out of his deckchair and ended up balancing on the edge of the pool. Just as he was about to fall in, Jack grabbed his arm and pulled him to safety. The magician took a few deep breaths.

"God damn it man, between you and that assassin I'm gonna have a frikkin' heart attack." he muttered angrily.

"Sorry, I thought you knew I was there." Jack apologised.

"Huh, just when I thought this day couldn't get any worse." Harold moaned.

"What's the problem?" Jack asked.

"It's the girls." Harold whined. "I've been putting the moves on 'em all, but they've all blown me off."

Jack wondered if _'the moves'_ referred to the pompous way he was acting during the introductions. If so it was no wonder Harold had been repeatedly rejected.

"I just don't get it." he continued. "Chick's love confidence right? What am I doing wrong?"

"Well it varies from person to person I guess, but perhaps you were being a little to overconfident." Jack suggested.

"Ah, what do you know." Harold replied grumpily.

The two of them spent some time chatting, mostly about Harold's two favourite subjects; girls and himself. After a while Jack thought he'd take the chance to learn more about the magician, hopefully without triggering some painful memories like he did with Abasi.

"There's no real story to tell." Harold replied. "I have normal middle class parents, five siblings and a typical teenage life. I saw a magician on TV one day, tried it for myself and just happened to be good at it. To be honest I'm not sure how Hope's Peak even spotted me, I'm not particularly famous yet and only play small venues." He smirked, "You heard of me though, so I guess I must be more renowned than I realised."

Jack didn't have the heart to tell him that he had lied, so he decided to steer clear of that subject. "So you plan on becoming a celebrity then?"

"Oh yeah!" Harold answered with sudden enthusiasm in his voice. "They say that graduating from Hope's Peak is like having a golden ticket into any job you can think of, so with my talent and Hope's Peak's backing I'll be on hit TV shows in no time. I'll be a superstar."

"You certainly seem determined." Jack remarked, impressed by the magician's eagerness.

"Oh yeah, 'cos there's one thing a superstar can get that no one else can." Harold replied.

"What's that?"

"Supermodels!" Harold replied, a lecherous grin spreading out across his face. Jack wasn't even that surprised, everything Harold did seemed to revolve around his pervy instincts. "All the male celebrity's on TV have ridiculously hot girlfriends. And why? It's because hot chicks get all weak in the knees for a famous guy. That's why I'll become the most famous person in the world, and assemble my very own supermodel harem!"

By this point Harold was talking more to himself than to Jack, he seemed to be lost in his own imagination (no doubt filled with lewd fantasies). Jack tried to bring the magician back down to earth, but Harold was drooling at the mouth and giggling to himself at his own daydreams.

"There you guys are!"

Jack and Harold were interrupted by someone shouting to them. It was Noah. The white haired boy looking out of breath as he ran up to them."

"I've been *pant* looking all over *pant* for you guys."

"What's the matter?" Jack asked.

"It's good news at last!" Noah replied cheerfully. He took a breather before continuing, "A little while after breakfast Solomon, Laura, Blake and I went to search the shop. We spent a while aimlessly searching the place, then I stumbled across a large inflatable life raft on the second floor."

"Seriously!" Harold exclaimed. "Can we use it to escape?"

"I think so!" Noah replied. "We checked it all over and there don't seem to be any holes in it, and it's big enough to easily seat all sixteen of us plus supplies. I went to tell Ian, and he told me to find everyone and tell them that we'll discuss making an escape attempt with it tonight. You guys are the last two to know."

"Awesome!" Jack cheered. He was overjoyed; things had seemed hopeless yesterday, yet now there was a chance at freedom, a ray of hope.

" _We can do this!"_ he thought. _"We can beat this game! We can all survive this!"_

"Oh, and keep quiet about it guys." Noah whispered as he looked around to check Monobear wasn't nearby. "We don't want Monobear to catch wind of this."

The three boys talked for a while about what supplies they should take with them until it was time for dinner. As they headed back Jack felt a rush of excitement inside of him.

It was time for an escape meeting.


	7. Little Shop of Horrors

Jack was the last person to make it to dinner. When he entered the dining room he found Monobear and the other students in the middle of a heated argument.

"I know one of you bastards is responsible!" Monobear yelled. "Now confess so I can punish you!"

"There must be a screw loose in that ugly little head of yours." Ian replied. "Technology breaks all the time, you can't blame any of us when something goes wrong."

"What's going on?" Jack whispered to Laura as he took the empty seat next to her.

"Ian sabotaged the only camera in this room so we could have our escape meeting without Monobear finding out." Laura whispered back. "Because he crept up on it in a blind spot, Monobear has no idea who broke it and can't punish anyone. Ian's trying to pass it of as a technical fault in the camera."

"Grrr, you bastards! Don't try and get smart with me! I'm gonna go bearserk if you don't own up pronto!" Monobear screeched.

"Am I getting smart with you? How would you know?" Ian smirked.

"Enough of this!" Monobear snapped. "Sooner or later I will find out who did this. And when I do I'll make them beg for me to execute them!" With that he stomped off, muttering to himself angrily.

Ian sighed, "Finally. Right guys, grab some food and let's get down to business."

The students all filled their plates with food and sat around the main table. As they began eating, Ian started the meeting.

"As you all know, earlier today Noah and others found a life raft in the general store. This raft is large enough for all of us and about three weeks' worth of supplies. With this in mind we all have to make a choice, do you want to stay here and stay under the rule of a psychopathic stuffed toy for an indefinite period of time? Or do you want to risk taking the life raft and escape? Obviously the life raft is risky, we don't know where we are, how long we'll be at sea for or if we'll be lucky enough to avoid storms and such. However the alternative is to stay here while Monobear tries to trick you into killing one of your friends. I personally am going to take my chances with the life raft, however everyone can decide for themselves. You will not be forced to go along with the majority rule."

"Hold on, just stop and use your heads for a minute!" Rokaku said. "Is no one really going to question why there was a life raft of that size in the general store in the first place? I mean come on; it's highly unlikely Monobear missed something like that, this is definitely another trap of his."

"That's true. Also if we tried to use the lift raft wouldn't we be breaking rule 6? Monobear might try to punish us." Solomon added.

"Well technically speaking we're not disposing of anything in the ocean, it's not disposing if we have full intent to use it, so I think we ok on the grounds of rule 6." Ian replied. "And yes, Monobear may have some kind of devious plan in mind that involves leaving a lift raft for us. But I still think it's better to take the risk and try to escape than to stay here and wait god knows how long to be rescued."

The students started discussing with each other if taking the life raft was a good idea. After a few minutes of eating and discussing everyone had reached their own decisions.

Jack was willing to take the risk, and so was the majority of the group. Rokaku, Noah, Harold and Raulf had decided to stay and wait.

"Then its settled." said Ian. "The twelve of us will try to get to shore via the life raft, and when we do we'll send help to you as soon as possible. After we've all finished eating we'll head over to the shop to gather the supplies we'll need. I'd appreciate it if the four who wish to stay came and helped us."

"You think Monobear's just going to sit back and watch you escape? Rokaku asked. "You think he'll wave you off as you sail away?"

"His own rule, number 8, says we can pretty much do as we please. Besides, the objective of his game is to leave this ship, so he shouldn't have any complaints." Ian replied.

"And you think he'll play by his own rules?"

"We'll never know if we don't test him."

After finishing dinner the students headed down to the shop. The students split up to gather supplies, and Jack found himself searching the first room on the left with Alice.

"So, are you looking forward to escaping?" Jack said, deciding to start a conversation.

"Yes, I can't wait to see my family again." the gardener replied. "But I hope we'll all stay in touch. Everyone here has become friends pretty fast; even Abasi seems more sociable than before. I wonder if it's because of our situation, or because super high school level students can understand each other more easily?"

"What do you mean?" Jack asked.

"Exceptionally talented people like us are often defined by our talents, whether we want to be or not." Alice replied. "Because of this our personalities tend to differ from societies norms quite a bit, so when a normal person with little experience dealing with unusual people talks to us, they find it hard to understand us. However other unusual people can relate to being different from the norm, and find it easier to make a personal connection."

"So you're saying because we're all weird, we can sympathize with each other?" Jack asked. He realised what Alice was talking about was the same thing he had impulsively said to Abasi.

Alice laughed a little. "To put it bluntly, yes." she replied. "Our time together may have been short so far, but everyone has already shown each other quite a lot about who they are. For example Mel is energetic, Rokaku is proud, Ian is reliable, and you…" a slight shade of pink coloured Alice's cheeks, "you're very kind Jack."

Jack felt a bit of heat on his cheeks. He hoped he wasn't blushing, and if he was that Alice hadn't noticed. He was suddenly very conscious of the fact that the two of them were all alone.

"Well… erm… I'm sure we'll stay in contact when this is all over." Jack stuttered. "Monobear said we were all friends before he took our memories away, so once we get back to land and find a way to restore our memories I'm sure we'll all go back to that."

"Oh that's right! We all knew each other before didn't we?" Alice replied. "I wonder if we all act the same way towards one another now as we did at Hope's Peak?"

"What do you mean by that?" Jack asked.

"Well perhaps Nicole and Patrick didn't argue all the time." Alice replied, with an innocent smile.

No matter how hard he tried, Jack couldn't picture that happening.

"I'll bet we all got along famously." Jack lied. "They say that Hope's Peak classes usually become very close."

Alice giggled. "It must be so much fun to stay with close group of friends all the time." She said with a small, sad smile. "Memories like that must be a great treasure."

"Hey, are you all right?" Jack asked, concerned by Alice's slightly melancholic expression.

"Oh don't worry, I'm fine." Alice replied, putting up another smile. "It's just that I've never really had a close group of friends before. In fact I've never had any proper friends, so I must have been really happy at Hope's Peak."

"What! You're kidding!" Jack remarked, shocked. He couldn't imagine that someone as cute and sweet as Alice had never had a friend before."

"I have… um… domestic issues, which has made befriending people hard up until now." Alice said, the small sad smile returning again. "I'll tell you about them some time."

Jack felt a wave of pity well up inside him; Alice's sad expression was heart-breaking. He realised just how important the stolen memories were to everyone, how much happiness had been lost with them. By taking their memories Monobear hadn't just stolen their time, he'd stolen their friendship as well.

He had to get them back, no matter what.

Suddenly a movement in the corner of his eye caught Jacks attention, and he looked up to see a figure looking down at them from the second floor balcony. The figure was wearing some kind of black cloak that obscured his physique, though Jack could tell they were quite tall, and had a hood completely concealing their face.

"Hey you! Stop right there!" Alice shouted. As she did the figure turned and ran toward the door to the balcony, then crouched down so that Jack and Alice could no longer see them.

Alice sprinted out of the room and toward the staircase, no doubt going to catch the mysterious person. Jack ran after her, but the head start meant Alice was at the foot of the staircase as Jack reached the middle of the hallway. Alice dashed up the staircase, not paying attention to her footing, which proved to be a mistake.

Jack could only watch in horrified silence as a hole in the staircase gave way beneath Alice's feet. Time seemed to slow down, and for a moment Alice floated in mid-air. Then she fell, down into the darkness underneath the stairs, to surprise to even scream.

But the scream came half a second later. A shrill, pained scream that continued for a mere second, then abruptly fell silent.

Jack bolted to the hole in the staircase and looked down. The sight he saw would continue to haunt him for years.

Long wooden spikes had been placed all over the floor underneath the stairs. Bits of stairs, and what looked like a large wooden column, had fallen on some of them, however that wasn't what drew Jack's attention. Impaled on a bunch of spikes was Alice, fresh blood trickling down to the floor. Her torso and limbs had numerous spikes in them, but worst of all was the spike going straight through her head. Though her death had been quick, it certainly wasn't painless.

Jack was frozen to the spot, stunned in horror at the sight. Many of the other students were now running towards him, alerted by the sounds of crashing and screaming. As the other students looked down into the pit and saw Alice's body, the tannoys sparked into life and Monobears voice resounded across the ship.

"Attention students, a body has been discovered. After a short period of investigation we will start a class trial."

Jack felt sick, his body was numb and his mind was reeling.

" _This isn't happening."_ he thought. _"This can't be real."_

The student's worst fears had been realised.

One of them had been murdered.

One of them was a murderer.


	8. Shadowman

The fifteen remaining students stood around the crime scene, unsure as to what they should do.

"We have to investigate? How do we do that?"

"How long do we have?"

"WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS OUTRAGE?"

"Nay… nay… surely my mind deceives me!"

Jack could hear them, but he wasn't paying them any attention. His mind was having trouble accepting what he was seeing.

" _There's a dead person in front of me."_ he thought. _"Alice is dead."_

Everyone was affected to some extent; most of them had never seen a murder before. However for Jack it hit the hardest.

He'd never seen a dead body; he had always saved his patients, no one had ever died under his care.

Until now.

For the first time ever, he'd failed.

It was despair inducing.

"Jack snap out of it! Jack!"

Jack was awakened from his trance by a rough shake on the shoulders. Ian was behind him, trying to get his attention.

"What? What is it?" he mumbled.

"There'll be time for mourning later, for now we've got work to do." Ian said. The assassin seemed far more serious than usual, and there was a hard look in his eyes. He turned to address the group.

"Everyone listen up!" he roared, the volume of his voice grabbing everyone's attention.

There was anger in the assassin's voice. His dark grey eyes seemed to gleam with fury as he addressed the students, the sudden change in the assassin's made the others freeze in shock.

"We don't have much time here. Whether you want to accept it or not, one of us here is a murderer. And if we can't find out who then we'll all be executed. Now is not the time for mourning, that comes later. For now we all need to focus of finding evidence to help us discover the culprit."

"But what are we supposed to do?" Laura asked. "None of us are detectives, where do we begin?"

"We need to split up and look around." Ian replied. "Look for anything unusual, anything missing, broken or bloody. Find as much evidence as you can for us to use in the class trial."

"You mean we're playing that stupid game?" Patrick asked. "We're going to give into Monobear just like that?"

"We don't have a choice." Ian replied. "We have to play the game now; somebody's started the first round. Winning it is the only chance we have of surviving."

"Upupupupu. This is fantastic!" said a familiar voice. The students looked around to see a joyful Monobear twirling around like a demented ballerina.

"It's only your first full day of being here, and you've already murdered someone!" the bear laughed. "I'm so proud of you little ingrates, I knew you had it in you."

"You! You're responsible for all this!" Ian snarled.

"Who? Me?" Monobear replied with mock indignation. "I'm just an innocent little bear. I'm far to kind and gentle to massacre a friend so horribly." He burst out into another fit of laughter, "Like I said, it's one of you bastards that did this. And I know who, I watched the whole thing. My oh my, was it juicy."

"You know who did this?" Nicole asked.

"Sure do sweet thing." Monobear replied, sending shivers down Nicole's back. "But I'm not just gonna tell you who did it, oh no, where would the fun be in that? What I will do is give you brats a little help to stop you fretting over the obvious."

There was a sudden beeping sound from each student's ID. They all turned on their devices to find that the tab marked "File" glowing. As they pressed it, the screen turned to a report of Alice's murder.

There was an outline of Alice's body, covered with multiple red dots where each spike had got though her. Underneath were three bits of information.

 **Victim: Player 10, Alice White**

 **Time of death: 8.37pm**

 **Place of death: Monte Carlo Casino**

 **Cause of death: Multiple stab wounds**

"This is it?" Jack asked. "This is all the information you'll give us?"

"Yeesh, so ungrateful." Monobear replied. "This file is just to stop you from sweating the small details and help you concentrate on the important stuff. I mean the trial won't be very fun if you all brought useless bits of information to it now would it?"

"Whatever. It wasn't like any of us expected you to be of any use anyway." Rokaku sneered.

"How cruel." Monobear replied, looking hurt. "All I ever do is give, yet you bastards do nothing but complain. Fine, I get the hint, I know when I'm not wanted. Call if you need something"

With that the bear once again disappeared. Now armed with the basic details of the murder, the students fanned out to look for clues. Before leaving, Jack glanced down at Alice's body.

" _I'll find out who did this to you."_ Jack mentally promised. _"I swear it."_

Jack went up to the second floor and headed to the balcony where he saw the cloaked figure, which he mentally named "shadowman". It was likely that shadowman was the culprit, so any clues about who they were could be helpful.

However there was no sign of the mysterious figure. Jack wondered why shadowman had even been there in the first place. Had he just come to bait him and Alice? Or was there something more?

It was then Jack noticed two cameras on the wall. From a distance it looked like the other cameras Monobear had around the ship, but when Jack examined them closer he found they were detachable. Monobear already had proper cameras covering this room, and Jack was pretty sure that these cameras weren't here when he explored the shop on the first day.

Looking at how they were placed, Jack guessed one of them was looking down at the floor, where Jack and Alice had been, and the other was looking up at the chandelier on the roof.

" _Curious."_ Jack thought. _"If these aren't Monobears then whose are they? Who put them here, and when? Could it have been shadowman?"_

"What doest thou seek childe of health?"

Jack turned to see Raulf approach. He told Raulf about shadowman, and how Alice had died trying to catch them. As he mentioned that the figure was dressed in a black cloak, Raulf's eyes widened.

"Follow me, thine description has ignited a recollection in my mind." Raulf said. Which Jack figured meant _Follow me, that reminds me of something."_

Raulf took Jack into one of the other rooms, which was filled with different clothes and mannequins. He led him to a rack of black cloaks identical to the one used by shadowman.

"See here." Raulf said, and pointed to an empty coat hanger at the back.

" _So this is where shadowman got their cloak from."_ Jack thought. _This room isn't too far from the balcony, so they could have taken it just before I saw them. Why didn't they put it back when they were done though? They had the time."_

Jack also noticed that one of the mannequins was missing. He wondered why, but couldn't think of anything at the moment.

Next Jack explored the other rooms on the second floor. There were two more detachable cameras on the balcony of the other double room, focused on the floor and lighting again. Ian was investigating this balcony as well.

"Hi Jack." the assassin said. "Found anything?"

Jack summed up the results of his investigation so far. Once he was done, Ian looked at him curiously.

"That's odd…" he said. "I was at the bottom floor of this room with Noah when the murder happened, and Laura was here on the balcony. We didn't see this ' _shadowman'_ , so I guess they weren't in their disguise when they put them here, assuming shadowman is the one who placed these cameras."

Ian examined the cameras more closely. "I've not seen these before, but I think there was a room full of electronic equipment on this floor somewhere." he said. "Go explore that area."

Jack headed over to the electronics room and looked around. After a few minutes of searching, he found a shelf of stacked boxes containing disposable spy cameras, two of which were opened. According to the box there were two cameras per box, and those cameras connected to a monitor also found in the box.

" _This means there are two monitors unaccounted for somewhere."_ Jack thought. _"Why did the culprit need to keep an eye on the two double floored rooms?"_

Satisfied that he had investigated the second floor enough, Jack walked down the stairs (keeping to the edge of the stairs to avoid the hole that Alice fell though) and started investigating the first floor.

Most of the rooms had nothing of interest. However in the DIY room Jack found Solomon examining a bunch of planks of wood.

"Found anything?" Jack asked. Solomon nodded and showed him the planks.

"There are a lot of planks of wood missing from this pile." Solomon replied. He pointed to a toolbox close by, "That toolbox over there is also missing a saw."

Jack went over to the toolbox where missing saw was. He noticed there was also a missing hammer, nail, coil of rope and coil of wire.

" _Did the culprit use these tools?"_ He thought. _"What for?"_

The rest of the rooms had nothing of interest in them. So the last place Jack decided to examine was the crime scene. There was a small door by the side of the staircase that led to the murder scene.

Jack prepared himself as he entered, it was easier to cope with the second time, but seeing Alice's dead body impaled on the spikes was still pretty tough. Since Jack had witnessed her death first hand, he figured investigating the body would be pointless, however he noticed the floor seemed to be covered in quite a lot of sawdust.

"How goes the investigation?"

Grace was there as well, the sensor looking at Jack with her usual poker face. Jack told her the results of his investigation so far.

"That's strange." Grace said once Jack had finished. "I was able to hear the footsteps of everyone in this building, yet I didn't hear anyone running around the balcony at the time you claim this _'shadowman'_ was there."

"But I saw them!" Jack replied, shocked that the sensor hadn't heard the cloaked figure.

"Did anyone else see this _'shadowman'_?" Grace asked.

"No, it was just me and Alice."

"I see. So there's no one who can support your claim." Grace said sternly.

"Hey, you don't think I'm lying do you?" Jack asked, feeling a little indignant.

"I'm not ruling anything out at the moment." the sensor replied. "But if there really was a shadowman, they must have been someone on the second floor. The people on the second floor at that time were me, Laura, Solomon, Harold, Will and Abasi. In fact nobody changed floors while we were searching the shop, I would have heard walking up the staircase if they had. The staircase was quite creaky, so I wouldn't have failed to notice."

"That makes sense." Jack replied. "Anyway, have you found anything?"

"Yes, I believe I have deduced how the culprit caused the stairs to collapse." Grace replied. She led Jack over to a pillar in the centre of the room.

"This pillar is what was supposed to support the stair so they didn't fall." she explained. "The culprit sawed a block out of the pillar, which meant when Alice ran across it it's couldn't support the weight and collapsed."

"Hold on. How come some people got to the second floor without the stairs crumbling?" Jack asked. Grace smiled ever so slightly.

"Very observant of you. I'm afraid I do not know that, but it will no doubt come to light in the class trial."

"Also, if a block from the support was removed then where is it? Jack asked.

"That's the clever bit." Grace said, faintly smiling again. She led Jack over to wall, which was made of wooden blocks, and pointed to a block that seemed normal from afar, but upon closer examination didn't quite fit.

"After removing the block from the pillar, the culprit removed a block from the wall then hid the pillar block in its place. This trap seems to have been set up earlier, so the culprit has effectively had all day to hide the removed wall block, it may not even be in this shop."

" _What was the point of that? Why go through all that effort to trade one block for another?"_ Jack wondered.

"Do you think it's worth looking around for it?" he asked.

"I think so." Grace replied. "The culprit wouldn't have wanted to risk being seen walking around with it, so they won't have hidden it very far. And it may have some other evidence we can use at the trial."

Jack had already searched all the rooms in the shop, so the two students left and explored outside the shop. They walked around the building, looking for any sign of the missing block, but as they went round to the back of the shop, the two discovered something peculiar.

The block that Grace theorised was in fact the pillar block, but had been placed in the wall to hide it, had a length of rope nailed to the back of it. The rope led up to a window near the top of the building.

"That window is too high to be on the second floor." Jack said. "I was right; there must be an attic of some kind."

"Which means the culprit had access to the staff rooms." Grace concluded. "The entrance to the attic must be through the staff room on the second floor, and Monobear said he'd only give the key to one particular student. He must have meant a student prepared to commit murder.

"Did someone call?" Monobear asked in his annoying, childish voice. As usual the bear had somehow appeared out of nowhere behind them.

"Did you give the culprit the keys to the staff room?" Jack asked, his irritation at seeing the bear evident in his voice.

"Well not exactly, but you'll find that out in due time." Monobear replied. "What matters is that the blackened student did manage to obtain the key to the staff rooms, which leads up to the attic. For the purpose of this investigation I'll unlock the staff rooms, so you two can go up there if you like."

Monobear turned to leave, but Jack stopped him before he could.

"One more thing, is it possible for there to be an accomplice?"

"Upupupupupu. Well it certainly is possible, however only the student that deals the killing blow gets to go free. So unless the accomplice is willing to die for them it'd be unlikely." Monobear replied.

"I see." Jack said, thinking about it for a while. "Ok, you can go now."

"Hey brat, you don't get to boss me around!" Monobear snarled. He sighed, and muttered something under his breath before once again waddling out of sight. Jack and Grace decided searching the attic would be the best use of their little remaining time, and headed back to the second floor.

Jack and Grace arrived at the second floor to find the staff room door, which Jack noticed seemed soundproofed, unlocked. There wasn't anything of note inside, except for the pull down stairs that led up to the attic. Jack pulled the stairs down and led the way up into the dark attic, unsure of what he'd find.

At first it was too dark to see anything, so Jack fumbled around until he found the light switch and turned it on. There wasn't much in the attic, a few boxes were piled up in the corner, and the rope attached to the block was sticking through the window. However the thing that immediately caught Jack's eye was the missing mannequin.

He went to examine it further. The mannequin was about the size of a child, and had some sort of smudged paint on its face.

Grace took a look at it. "This seems to be makeup. Could this mannequin have been somehow used in this plot?"

Jack though about it for a moment. _"What did the culprit need a mannequin for? How does this fit in with the murder?"_

Next Jack decided to search the boxes. One of them had the two monitors that Jack assumed were connected to the detachable cameras he found earlier. Another had the hammer, saw, black cloak, wall block and makeup kit that were missing. " _The culprit set up a base here."_ he thought. _"They stashed the items they used here since they didn't think anyone would be able to search this place. They also monitored the two double floored rooms from up here, but why?"_

"Jack, come take a look at this." Grace called. Jack went over to her, to see her lifting up a trap door on the floor. The trap door was right above the chandelier in the room Jack was in when he saw shadowman.

"There's one on the other side too." she added. "This trap door must be used to clean the chandeliers. With these someone could drop down onto the either of the two balconies."

Jack felt an idea beginning to sprout in his head. He was about to share his theory with Grace, however was cut off as the tannoys sparked into life once again, and Monobears irritating voice burst from them.

"Attention students, we will now begin the class trial. All students are to report to the port side of the top deck immediately."

"It seems that time's up." Grace said, heading back down the attic stairs. Jack followed her, hoping he hadn't missed anything important.

Jack and Grace were the last two to arrive. Jack half expected Ian to make some joke about the two of them arriving late together, however the assassin seemed to be deep in thought.

"You ok there?" Jack asked. Ian looked at him, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking about what we're about to do."

"I know what you mean." Jack sighed. "We're going to have to sentence one of our friends to death if we want to make it out of here alive. It's not a nice thought."

"That's not what I meant." Ian replied blankly. Something about the tone of his voice worried Jack. It was then that Jack saw the cold fury in Ian's eyes once again.

"Someone here betrayed the group and murdered a fellow classmate. They committed a grave sin, and as such they are no longer our friend." Ian continued, the look in his eyes and the harsh tone of his voice scaring Jack a little. "Now they are nothing more than a criminal, and I'm going to see them punished for their crime."

Jack was taken aback. "You don't mean…" he began, but Ian cut him off.

"I do mean it Jack, they deserve whatever punishment Monobear has in store for them. I will feel no remorse in sentencing them to death." The assassin replied.

Jack remembered what Patrick had said during their introduction; Ian was well known in the criminal underworld for only targeting evil people. Whoever the culprit was, Ian had decided they were evil, and was determined to show them no mercy. What Jack was seeing now must be the ruthless side of Ian, the side that felt no pity of remorse for the lives it took. For the first time since meeting him, Jack could see Ian as someone to be feared, as a professional killer.

The students attention was suddenly drawn by a few bubbles popping up to the side of the ship. Seconds later a gaudy yellow submarine covered in Monobear styled graffiti burst from out of the water. The top hatch of it swung open, and a metal plank shot out of it and attached to the side rails of the yacht. Monobears voice rang out from over the tannoys.

"Will all students board the submarine immediately."

Figuring they didn't have much of a choice, the students crossed over the plank one by one until the fifteen of them were inside the submarine. The hatch closed and the submarine began its decent deep down into the ocean.

Jack looked around at the fourteen students with him. _"Not all of us will return from this."_ Jack thought. _"Either the fourteen innocent students, or the blackened culprit will be dead by the end."_ He felt a little queasy just thinking about it.

Eventually the submarine came to a halt, and an air locked door at the side of the submarine swung open to reveal an ominous black door with the word "Courtroom" messily written on it in red paint. At least Jack hoped it was red paint.

This was it, Jack realised. This was the moment of truth.

Alice White, the super high school level gardener, was a sweet, gentle girl. She'd given it her all to make friends with everybody and bring the group together.

And one of the fifteen students here had set a trap that killed her. One of them was a murderer.

Jack opened the black door and led the group into the courtroom.

It was time for the first trial.


	9. Pieces of the Puzzle

The courtroom was a large, round room with grey brick walls covered in messy, but rather cool looking graffiti. The floor was covered in cracked paving stones, which altogether gave the courtroom an urban streets theme.

There were sixteen wooden podiums in a circle around the centre of the room, and on the opposite side of the door was a large, golden throne which everybody's least favourite bear was sitting on.

"Upupupupu. Welcome to the courtroom, brats!" Monobear said gleefully. "Find you name on one of the podiums and get ready for the trial.

Jack found his podium quickly; it was closest one to the entrance door along with Grace's, who stood to his right. Noah stood at the podium to his left, and Ian's podium was the opposite one to Jack's, one of the closest to Monobear. To Ian's left was a podium that had a grey picture of Alice's face with a red X painted across it, which the assassin was clearly annoyed about.

"Do you have to be such an ass Monobear?" Ian spat at the stuffed toy. "Trying to get under our skin by having a picture of Alice here is just pathetic."

"Once again you think it's all about you, don't you." Monobear replied. "Attendance at these trials is mandatory, even for the dead. That picture is here so Alice can join in, even if she won't say much."

"You're sick in the head, you know that?" Ian grumbled.

By now all the students had taken their places, so Monobear gave the students a reminder of how the trial worked.

"In case and of you lame brains have forgotten, the trial goes like this:

You guys will debate amongst yourselves as to who the culprit is, and when you've reached an answer, or I get bored, I'll ask you all to vote.

On the screens on your podiums you'll choose who you want to vote for, remember that you must cast a vote or else I'll punish you. If the culprit gets the most votes then I'll punish them and the rest of you get to go free. But if someone else has more or an equal amount of votes as the culprit then I'll punish everyone, except the culprit who gets to go free. Any questions?"

"Are we allowed to do whatever we like in this courtroom?" Ian asked.

"You cannot use another person's screen to vote, nor will I allow any violence in here. Otherwise you're free to do pretty much whatever." Monobear replied.

No one else had any questions. "Very well then" Monobear said, "let the trial begin!"

"He says that, but where are we supposed to start?" Solomon asked.

"We'll just examine the most suspicious people." Harold replied. "Hey Noah! The whole escape plan was your idea right! You must have something to do with this!"

"Huh? Me?" The luckster looked shocked at the accusation.

"Whoa, whoa, steady on guys." Ian intervened. "Losing our heads and chucking blame at each other isn't going to help. We need to stay calm and examine the evidence."

"But none of the clues we found make it clear who the culprit is, what do we do?" Nicole asked.

Ian thought about it for a moment. "If we can piece together exactly how the murder happened, then we might be able to narrow down the list of suspects until we have a culprit." he suggested. "Let's starts by figuring out how the killer made their trap."

"I think I can help with that." Grace said. "The middle section of the staircase had a wooden pillar underneath it to support it, and prevent it collapsing if too much weight was put on it. The culprit removed a block from that pillar so that it would no longer support the stairs when someone went up them. They also set up spikes beneath the stairs that the victim would fall onto."

"Alright then, the first thing we should figure out is how the culprit got the spikes." Ian declared.

The students started debating amongst themselves.

"Where did the culprit get the spikes from?"

"I feel like I've seen them before."

"There's no question that the spikes are what killed Alice."

"Did the culprit get them from somewhere in the shop?"

"The dark one's lances may be afar from the shop?"

"Could the culprit have made them themselves?"

"AAGGHH! WE'LL NEVER FIGURE THIS OUT."

Jack had an idea. "You've got that right!" he yelled, pointing at Patrick, who was surprised by Jack's sudden outburst.

"Huh? Me?" the robber stuttered.

"Yeah you. You said the culprit could have made them themselves right?" Jack asked. "I think I know how they did it. Solomon, remember what you told me about the planks?"

"Umm… I said some were missing right?" Solomon replied.

"Yeah, along with a saw from the toolbox. What if the culprit sawed then ends of the missing planks of wood to turn them into spikes?" Jack said.

"Hold on." Rokaku interrupted. "The spikes were firmly placed into the floor. If they were originally planks of wood then they wouldn't be so securely fastened to the floor."

"There's a way around that." Jack replied. "There was a hammer missing from the toolbox as well. The culprit sawed a point from one end of planks, hammered them down into the floor point first, and then sawed a point into the other end, which are the points that Alice was impaled on."

"So the spikes were double edged?" Ian said, stroking his goatee. "That makes sense, but it's just a theory. Any evidence to back it up?"

" _Evidence. I know there is some, but what?"_ Jack thought. He mentally searched through his list of evidence until he found the clue he needed.

"The sawdust!" Jack shouted. "There was sawdust on the floor underneath the spikes, as there would be if the sawing was done there."

"I can confirm there was indeed sawdust on the floor." Grace said plainly.

"Then it fits." Ian replied. "We'll assume that is correct for now. The next thing that I think we should figure out is this; why were some of us able to walk up to the stairs earlier without springing the trap?"

"I think I know that too." Grace replied. "The culprit sawed a block in the support pillar earlier, but didn't remove it. A person walking up the stairs would have felt it if the stairs giving way and would have been able to move back to safety, this trap only worked because Alice was running when she climbed the stairs. In other words they planned to make Alice run up the stairs, and removed the block just beforehand."

"Aha, that would mean the culprit was somebody on the first floor." Laura remarked. "If the culprit removed the block then they couldn't have walked up to the second floor without springing their own trap right? There's no other way up."

"Who was on the first floor at the time of the murder?" Ian asked. The people who raised their hands were Jack, Ian, Rokaku, Mel, Raulf, Noah, Nicole, Patrick and Blake.

"That narrows down our suspect list by six." Ian said.

"Sorry guys, can someone explain to me how the culprit knew Alice would run up the stairs at that particular time?" Noah asked.

"Ah, that's because of shadowman." Jack replied. The students Jack hadn't told about shadowman looked confused, so Jack quickly explained it to them.

"Before the murder, Alice and I were in the double floored room to the left of the entrance hall. At one point we looked up to the balcony, where a tall person in a black cloak had appeared. They looked suspicious, so Alice ran up the stairs to apprehend them. It was then that the trap was sprung."

"That's a lie!"

Harold was the one who had shouted out. He was pointing at Jack, a smug grin on his face.

"You've slipped up, and now I've got you, culprit!"

"What do you mean?" Jack asked, a little shocked that he was being accused.

"I'm saying your story doesn't add up." Harold replied. "The only one who'd have a reason to disguise themselves is the culprit, and you claim that when you saw them they were on the second floor. But we've already established that the culprit had to have been on the first floor. Which means you're lying!"

Jack was too startled to reply, so the magician continued.

"Here's what I think happened. After the first lot of people had gone up to the second floor, Jack removed the block from the support pillar. Then he looked around the rooms until he found Alice, all alone. He said something that scared Alice, and when she tried to leave he chased her, causing her to run and explaining the shouting we heard. Trying to get away from the madman, Alice ran up the stairs, which collapsed as she did. This explains why Jack was already there when we all arrived."

"But… but that's…" Jack stuttered, starting to panic.

"Come to think of it, I could hear the footsteps of everyone in the building at all times. Yet I never heard any footsteps on the balcony at the time Jack claims to have seen shadowman." Grace added. "Plus it's nearly impossible for there to have been an accomplice, as only the one who deals the killing blow gets to leave. So it's highly unlikely that someone on the second floor would act as shadowman to help someone on the first floor get away with murder."

"But… wait…" Jack couldn't get his tongue to work properly.

"Look! He's sweating! He's totally the culprit, we've got him!" Harold cheered. "Monobear, let's vo…"

"Wait a second!" Ian interrupted. "Let's not jump to conclusions, I'll not vote until everything's cleared up, they has to be no doubt it's him."

The assassin looked at Jack. "Calm down and think." he said. "Do you have anything to say to defend yourself?"

" _That's right. I need to calm down."_ Jack thought. _"Now think, how can I prove my innocence?"_

"I got it!" he shouted. "Raulf, you can confirm a black cloak was missing from the clothing room right."

"Indeed, the boy's words speak true."

"And Grace, you can confirm we found said black cloak in the attic."

"That's correct."

"Then the fact that the black cloak was moved to the attic, which only the culprit could unlock, proves that shadowman exists." Jack explained. "Why else would it have been moved if it hadn't been used?"

"That's a lie!" Harold replied. "You could have easily moved the cloak before we all went to the shop."

"No I couldn't." Jack replied. "You of all people should know that Harold, we found out about the plan at the same time, remember. And we always in each other sight from then until we split up in the shop.

"Then you did it just before the murder." Harold retorted.

"That's incorrect. I did not hear anyone climb up the stairs after our group." Grace said. "And the stairs were quite creaky, so I wouldn't have failed to hear it. I am certain that after the first group went up the stairs at the beginning, no one else used those stairs to go either up or down until the murder."

"Then… afterwards?" Harold asked, not sounding too sure of himself any more.

"Nay, impossible. For I was without doubt the first to enter the threshold of the garments room." Raulf replied. The other students stared blankly at the playwright.

"I think he means he was the first one to go into the clothing room after we discovered the body." Ian translated.

"Yeah, and Raulf was the one who pointed out the missing cloak to me in the first place." Jack added.

"But… that's… damn!" Harold whined. "I thought I had it!"

"Still, it's a good thing you brought it up." Ian replied encouragingly. "By this logic Jack's now highly unlikely to be the murderer, which means we can assume his story is true." He frowned, "Yet this means the culprit was almost definitely shadowman, and was somehow able to travel between the two floors without using the stairs, more importantly without Grace hearing. How is that possible?"

"GGGHHHAAA! This is bad. Now we're all back to being suspects again!" Mel cried.

"Upupupu, you brats still haven't ruled out anybody yet? I'd be pathetic if it was game over for you on the first round." Monobear taunted.

"Shut it!" Ian snapped. "We'll get this, just you wait."

"Damn it, there must be some other way to change floors!" Will murmured.

"Actually I've been thinking about that, and there may have been a way for the culprit to ready their trap without being on the first floor, or the second floor for that matter." Jack said.

"Huh? How could they have not been on either floor?" Laura asked.

"Bear with me on this one guys. This gets quite complicated" Jack said. He took a deep breath, and then began his explanation.

"While I was investigating the crime scene, I asked Grace where the block that the culprit had taken out of the support pillar was. Grace had noticed that one of the wall blocks looked suspicious, and it turned out that the culprit had replaced the wall block with the pillar block.

However this didn't make sense, why would the culprit trade one block for another? Later on Grace and I were investigating the back of the shop, and we saw that the pillar block had a rope nailed into the back of it, a rope that led up to a window in the attic."

"What is your point?" Abasi asked.

"What if this is what happened." Jack continued. "The culprit sawed the block out of the pillar, but left it where it was. Then they hammered out the wall block to make a hole between the inside of the shop and the outside. The culprit went up to the attic and threw a rope down, which they threaded through the hole in the wall and nailed to the pillar block. When it was time to set their trap, the culprit pulled on the rope from the attic. The block was pulled out of the pillar and into the hole in the wall, covering the hole, concealing the pillar block and arming the trap at the same time."

"That… that makes a lot of sense actually." Ian said after thinking about it for a bit. "The entrance to the attic must be in the staff room on the second floor, and I'm sure Monoprick would give the staff room keys to a student if they were ready to go through with a murder. The attic would make the perfect place to work from since no-one would normally think to look there, or round the back of the shop for that matter."

"Plus the door to the staffroom is soundproofed, I wouldn't have heard anyone enter of exit there." Grace added. "And the attic is well insulated, I wouldn't be able to hear up their either."

Ian smiled, "Good job Jack, you're on a roll." He addressed the rest of the group, "So now we know the culprit was in the attic. We've got a good lead here, I can feel it!"

 _But we're not out of the woods yet."_ Jack thought. _Where do we go from here?"_


	10. The Liar Amongst Them

Now that the students had identified how the culprit had sprung their trap, and that they were hiding in the attic during the murder, excitement started to build in the courtroom. When they had first started this investigation things had looked hopeless, but now there was a chance, a ray of hope, of finding the culprit.

They had a lead.

"So we now know that the culprit used the rope attached to the block to spring their trap from the attic." Ian summarized. "Jack and Grace are the only two who investigated the attic right? What else did you discover there?"

"There were two monitors that connected to the cameras in the double floored rooms, boxes containing the missing cloak, saw, hammer and wall block, and a child sized mannequin that was taken from the clothing room which had smudged makeup on its face." Grace said.

"That's weird, but I'm sure we can find the purpose behind it." Ian replied. "Now then, the doors to the balconies are right next to the staff room door, it's likely that the culprit could have dressed up as shadowman, taunted Alice with their presence, then dashed up to the attic and pulled the rope before Alice reached the stairs. Afterwards they could have ditched the cloak and joined the group as the body was discovered. However that means that the culprit would have appeared on the second floor, so now we can assume that everyone on the second floor is a suspect. As I recall, the students on the second floor were Grace, Laura, Solomon, Harold, Will and Abasi."

"IF THAT IS SO, THEN WE SHOULD HEAR THE ALIBI'S OF THOSE SIX. THE ATTIC IS THE FARTHEST PART AWAY FROM THE CRIME SCENE, SO THE LAST PERSON TO ARRIVE WAS PROBABLY IN THE ATTIC!" Blake bellowed.

"If memory serves, then Laura was the last one on the second floor to reach the crime scene." Noah said.

"Yeah, I was on the balcony of the other double floored room, reading a book." Laura replied. "I was surprised by the scream and fell over, but I quickly got up. The balconies are the farthest rooms away from the crime scene, apart from the staff room, which is why I was last."

"I can confirm that's true." Ian added. "Noah and I were on the first floor of the double floored room, and we saw Laura reading whilst we were searching for supplies. When we heard Alice scream I saw Laura fall over before I ran out to investigate."

"So Laura's in the clear then." said Patrick. "Who's next?"

"The second last person to arrive was Abasi, I think." Noah replied.

"At the time I was in the electronics room, which is the next farthest room away from the crime scene." Abasi stated.

"Can anyone confirm that?" Ian asked. No one responded. Ian thought for a moment, "Hey Grace, did you hear Abasi come from the electronics room?"

"I was too worried about Alice's scream to pay attention at that time, I am sorry." Grace replied.

"Come to think of it, I was in the same from as Solomon when Alice was murdered." Will said. "And when we ran out of the room it looked like Harold had followed Grace out of the room they came from."

"Yeah that's true, I was stalk… *ahem*… accompanying Grace during the time of the murder." Harold said. "The only one who doesn't have an alibi is Abasi! Does that mean he's the culprit?"

Abasi did not seem to react to Harold's accusation. He stood behind his podium with his eyes shut and arms crossed, a look of calm concentration on his face. Jack realised that Abasi was thinking about evidence that would defend him, but his silence seemed to act as confirmation to most of the students.

"Hey, he's not denying it."

"No way, it was Abasi?"

"He's always acted so aloof and unsociable, I'm not surprised he did it."

"You're not really one to talk Rokaku…"

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Jack said shadowman was tall, and Abasi's the tallest one here except for Solomon."

"Abasi? The hell man, I always thought he was creepy."

"I believe there is evidence in my defence." Abasi suddenly stated. The other students grew silent and stared at him sceptically.

"Jack, when you saw shadowman how did their physique seem? Were they quite brawny?"

Jack thought about it for a moment. "No, they seemed average" he replied.

"I see." Abasi said. "Then Jack, can you confirm that earlier this morning I told you how my snakes will never leave me alone, regardless of my will?"

"Umm… I can." Jack replied, not seeing the snake charmers point.

"In that case I put this question to you." Abasi said as he took the wicker basket off his back. He took a shoddy looking wooden flute from out of his pocket and played a few note. Four large snakes suddenly burst their heads out of the basket, each one with bodies as thick as lamp posts.

Abasi gave a small smile, "Allow me to introduce you all to my pets; Osiris, Isis, Anubis and Horus. Tell me Jack, as the only one who has seen shadowman, do you think it's even remotely possible to have concealed snakes this large on my person?"

"No, no I don't think so." Jack replied.

"In that case I believe I have an alibi." Abasi concluded. "If I was shadowman, these snakes would have been clearly visible underneath the cloak."

"I… I guess so." Ian stated. "The problem we have now is that everyone has an alibi. Which means that one of us has faked theirs somehow."

The students started discussing possible ideas.

"Maybe someone on the first floor climbed the rope up to the second floor, acted as shadowman, then climbed down again?"

"No, that'd take far too long. They'd arrive so late it would be suspicious."

"Then maybe they jumped down from the balcony?"

"No, they'd have hurt themselves. Besides I'd have heard the thumping noise."

"Perhaps the mannequin was used as shadowman?"

"No, Jack said shadowman ran away. How could a mannequin do that?"

"Besides shadowman is supposed to be tall, the mannequin was child sized."

"COULD THEY HAVE USED THE WALL BLOCK SOMEHOW?"

"Seriously, stop shouting!"

"Perchance the wicked one's talent played a part?"

"Can't you speak normally just this once?"

"Wait a minute! Rokaku say that again!" Jack suddenly shouted.

"Don't you shout at me!" Rokaku said, irritated. "I said that the mannequin could have been used somehow."

"Of course! Rokaku you're a genius!" Jack cheered.

"Rokaku a genius? I'd better check my pet pig hasn't flown off." Ian said, earning a death glare from Rokaku. "What's got you so fired up suddenly?"

"I've got it." Jack replied enthusiastically. "I know who the culprit is!"

"R… really?" Ian asked, he and the other students surprised by Jacks declaration.

"Yep. Let me explain." Jack replied. "The key to this is the mannequin…"

"Remember the cameras that were set up in both of the double floored rooms? There were two in each room, one looking down at the floor and the other looking up at the lighting. The monitors in the attic were set so that the culprit could see who was in both rooms at once.

But what was the point of the cameras watching the lighting? While Grace and I were exploring the attic, Grace found two trapdoors that led into the double floored rooms. What if the reason Grace didn't hear shadowman's footstep was because he didn't have any? Shadowman was just a cloak? There were some wires missing from the toolbox as well, which I wouldn't have seen from a distance. From the attic, the culprit hung the wires off parts of the chandeliers, then dropped shadowman down from the trapdoor and used them as a puppet. Shadowman was really just a cloak on wires, but the culprit moved them so convincingly that they looked like a real person."

"Hold on, puppetry! Are you suggesting… Laura did this?" Ian asked. The students looked to the super high school level puppeteer, whose expression looked like a rabbit caught in headlights.

"M… Me?" Laura squeaked.

"You can't be right!" Noah shouted. "Ian and I both saw Laura on the balcony in our room the whole time! She couldn't have been in the attic!"

"Did you see her come in?" Jack asked calmly. Ian and Noah thought about it for a moment.

"Come to think, no. She just sort of appeared." Ian said.

"And that's the trick." Jack exclaimed. "Who you saw on the balcony wasn't Laura, it was the mannequin. Laura dressed the mannequin up as her, with her hood and the makeup hiding its blank face, then lowered it down though the trapdoor when she saw on the monitor that neither you nor Noah were looking. It's the same trick as shadowman, from the attic Laura was able to ready her trap, control a puppet that looked like her _and_ control shadowman at the same time."

"That's… that's ridiculous." Laura protested. "There's no way anyone could manage all those things at the same time."

"You've got that wrong!" Jack retorted. "Anyone else might find it impossible, but a super high school level puppeteer could pull it off. They could probably even pull it off with amazing attention to detail in their puppets. That's why I thought shadowman was a person, and why Ian and Noah thought that mannequin was you, because your talent was good enough to fool us, despite the difficulty of your conditions!"

"And neither shadowman nor the fake Laura were ever seen coming in or out of the doors to the balconies." Ian added. "Because the wires being used as strings couldn't go through the doors. Shadowman crouched out of sight and fake Laura tripped before anyone saw them leave."

"H… hold on a minute." Laura stuttered, starting to panic. "If that was true then shadowman and the mannequin would still be on the balconies."

"No they wouldn't." Jack replied. "You could just pull them back up through the trapdoors. Once you were done you left the attic, ran to the crime scene and told everyone you tripped."

"Then how did I dress the mannequin like me? It would have taken too long to use my own clothes, and then put them back on before heading to the murder scene." Laura said, growing more and more desperate.

"Our rooms are full of identical spare clothes, you could have kept some in you backpack and brought them with you to the attic." Jack replied.

"Then where are they now?" Laura practically screamed.

"In your backpack I imagine, along with the missing wires. If you're truly innocent then here's your chance to prove me wrong. Show us the contents of your backpack."

Laura's eyes widened, her anger instantly subsiding to a look of defeat. Her legs gave way beneath her and she fell to the ground. "I… It wasn't… I couldn't have…" she muttered, but at this point it was no use.

"Looks like we've found our culprit." Ian growled, the look of cold rage returning to his eyes. "Jack, just in case we've missed something, would you mind summarizing the plot. You played the biggest part in this trial, so it's only fair you should have the honour."

"Oh… right." Jack said, not sure that what he was doing could be called an honour. "Let's start from the beginning…"

"Everything began this morning when Noah, Solomon, Blake and the culprit went to explore the rest of the shop. Noah came across a large life raft and though about using in an escape attempt, and when he told the others the culprit saw an opportunity to commit murder.

Once the group had disbanded, the culprit called Monobear, who gave them the keys to the shop staff rooms. Whilst exploring the staff room, the culprit discovered the attic and the two trap doors. Armed with this knowledge, the culprit devised a plan.

Their first step was to take a few tools, such as a saw, hammer, nail, coil of rope and coil of wire from a toolbox in the DIY room of the shop. They threw the rope out the attic window, then bashed a block out of the shop's wooden wall with a hammer and threaded the rope through it. Then they went to the other side of the wall, which was underneath the stairs, sawed a block in the stairs support pillar and nailed the rope to the block.

Next the culprit took some planks from the DIY room. They sawed a point onto one end of each plank, hammered them into the floor for support, and then sawed another point into the other end so that they'd impale whoever fell for their staircase trap.

With their trap ready to go, the culprit now focused on creating an alibi and bait. First they took a spare set of clothes from their room, which they hid in their backpack. Then they took a mannequin, makeup kit and black cloak from the clothing room and headed up to the attic. The culprit dressed up the mannequin to look like them from a distance, and then attached wires to the mannequin and cloak to create their two puppets; "Shadowman" and the mannequin.

With the trapdoors on the roof, the culprit was able to control their two puppets from the safety of the attic. And by hanging the wires on different points of the chandeliers, the culprit was able to extend the space the puppets could move around in. In order to make sure that the students in the double floored rooms didn't see the puppets descend, and in order to keep an eye on their reactions, the culprit placed video cameras they found in the electronics store in those rooms and watched them through the monitors.

After that the culprit packed the items they'd used into the boxes in the attic, left the shop and waited until dinner. Just as they'd expected, the group decided to gather supplies for the escape attempt from the shop. When the group arrived at the shop, the culprit went straight up to the attic.

First of all they waited until Ian and Noah weren't looking, and then lowered the mannequin from the trap door onto the balcony to give themselves an alibi. Then they lowered shadowman from the trapdoor of the other room, when Alice and I weren't looking. Normally these puppets would have been seen through right away, but the distance and the culprit's talent for puppetry allowed them to fool us.

Alice was the unfortunate student who noticed shadowman first. She rushed up the stairs, determined to catch them. However by then the culprit had pulled the rope in the attic which removed the block from the support pillar. The pillar block was pulled into the gap the culprit created to thread the rope through, and as Alice ran across the stairs they crumbled underneath her. Had she been walking she could have avoided the trap, but Alice was so focused on catching shadowman that she didn't notice until it was too late.

Alice fell through the stairs and was impaled on the spikes bellow. As her screams called everyone's attention, Laura had the mannequin trip up as Ian and Noah looked towards the screaming to buy her some time. Once everyone had rushed out the rooms to discover the source of the scream, the culprit pulled shadowman and the mannequin back into the attic through the trapdoors. They quickly removed the wires, and the clothes from mannequin, wiped the makeup off mannequins face with said clothes, then stuffed them into her backpack and ran down to join the rest of the group.

The only one who could have pulled off such a convincing puppet show is you! Laura Sparks!"

As Jack said the final sentence, tears welled up in Laura's eyes. "But I… I…" she stuttered.

"Upupupupupu, about time. It was fun at first, but man listening to you bastards jabber on is so tedious" Monobear taunted. "In any case it's time for the vote."

"No! No Please No!" Laura begged as the screens on each podium lit up. The student's sixteen faces were each displayed on the screens, with Alice's face faded and grey.

As soon as the faces were displayed Ian cast his vote without hesitation, glaring at Laura with that same cold, hard anger in his eyes. The rest of the students hesitated for a moment, unsure as to whether they should sentence Laura to death, but one by one the students cast their votes, remembering that if they didn't Monobear would punish them.

"Looks like the votes are in, so let's see if you little psycho's voted correctly." Monobear jeered. On the podium screens a slot machine appeared with the students faces on its wheels. The slot machine span for a bit, then one by one the wheels stopped on the picture of Laura's face. When the last wheel stopped, confetti burst from the slot machine, and the word "CORRECT" flashed up in big, golden letters.

"Upupupupu, Ghahahahahaha!" Monobear burst out into laughter. "Well done guys, you've successfully caught the culprit. I guess you'll all live to fight another day."

He grinned at Laura menacingly, "Well, all but one of you." At this point Laura was a mess, she wept uncontrollably on the floor.

"There's one thing I want to know…" Ian said. There was still anger in his eyes, yet unmistakably pain too. "Was wealth that important to you? You'd really murder your friend for money?"

Laura was still crying on the floor, but after a while she was able to pick herself up and hold back her tears long enough to explain herself.

"A few years ago now, my father started to gamble. It wasn't much at first, but he soon became addicted. He gambled our savings, our possessions, even our house, until we had very little left. My mother tried her best to stop him, but Dad just couldn't control himself. They're currently going through divorce proceedings."

"When Monobear offered unlimited wealth I realised that if I had that it would fix all my family problems. My mother could have a big house and fancy possessions; father could spend as much money as he wanted on gambling without repercussions, we'd be a happy family again."

"But to be honest, I wasn't going to go for it at first. I mean I thought about it, but I didn't think I had it in me to murder someone. On the first night I was in my room, trying to get to sleep, when I heard a knock at the door.

Laura sniffled and took a few breaths. As she prepared to speak again, Jack felt the atmosphere suddenly become darker. He had a terrible feeling that something bad was about to happen.

"When I answered it, _they_ were there. I let them in, thinking they just wanted to talk about the situation, but instead they started talking about my family. Somehow they knew everything, and they listed reason after reason why Monobears prize was the only hope I had of fixing my problems. I refused at first, but they kept on talking. They were so persuasive that eventually I started listening to them, I couldn't get their words out of my head, they talked about such a horrible subject so calmly, as I discussing the weather."

"Who are you talking about? Who are _they_?" Jack asked.

"One of us!" Laura replied, suddenly seeming terrified. "One of the sixteen students here. They seemed normal during the day, but when they approached me at night, they showed me a completely different side of them." Laura hugged herself in fear, "They were completely insane!"

"One of us pushed you to kill?" Nicole asked. "Why would they do that?"

"They work for Monobear!" Laura replied, once again on the verge of tears. "They're the one I got the staff room key from, not Monobear. It's their job to disrupt the efforts of the others to escape, and to ensure that the murders will keep on happening. They're a traitor!"

"Who is it?" Ian asked. "Who's the traitor in our group?"

"I can't tell you!" Laura said, bursting into tears. "They're holding my parents hostage! They said they'll let them go at the end of the game, but if I do anything to reveal their identity to the others they'll torture them to death." Laura tried to keep talking, but at that point she couldn't keep herself composed any longer and mumbled out gibberish in between tears."

"Geez, b-o-r-i-n-g!" Monobear suddenly yelled. "Stop being such a drama queen you little murderer. The whole traitor concept is so overused, so I doubt anyone's surprised anymore. Besides, no-one cares about the people who die in the first chapter."

"Now what the hell are you on about?" Ian asked.

"What? Oh don't worry about it, it's not important." Monobear said a little too casually. "More importantly, it's time for our very first special execution!" he said gleefully, jumping up and down in the air.

"What!? No please…" Laura begged. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Please don't!..."

A podium with a large red button on it rose up from out of the floor in front of Monobear. From behind his back Monobear produced a judge's hammer, which he held in the air for a bit before slamming it down on the button. The screen on Jacks podium lit up, and displayed a red background with Laura's pixilated game character on it. A pixilated Monobear walked on screen and grabbed Laura, dragging her off as the words "Player 13: Laura Sparks has been found guilty. Commencing execution" appeared on the screen in white.

A section of the wall behind Laura opened up, and a mechanical collar shot out from the shadows and grabbed Laura by the neck. As much as Laura kicked and screamed the collar dragged her, almost effortlessly, into the darkness.

The floor in the middle of the podiums started moving, sections of it lowering down to make a spiral staircase leading under the courtroom. Monobear hopped off his throne and led the way down.

"I feel so proud of myself; I'm the first one to show you kiddies the despair inducing beauty of an execution. Come on, I bet you can't wait to see it."

Although hesitant at first, one by one the students walked down the spiral staircase. The stairs led to a room that was near completely dark. The students could only make out a wire fence in front of them.

Suddenly the lights flashed on, it took a second for the student's eyes to adjust. But once they had they saw Laura, arms and legs bound by mechanical arms, on the other side of the fence.

 **Dancing on strings**

The mechanical arms lifted Laura into the air, and then started forcing Laura's limbs to move in ways that put her in humiliating positions. Monobear had a sense of irony, for now the puppeteer was being used as a puppet.

The arms forced Laura to dance, clap, and do other movements against her will, then forced Laura to start skipping towards the edge of a cliff. At the end of the cliff was a long drop down into a large vat of acid.

Laura struggled and cried, but couldn't overpower the mechanical arms that made her prance straight to her impending doom. When she reached the edge of the cliff, Laura was forced to jump and stretch her arms out like a bird, she screwed her eyes shut and prepared for the drop.

Yet it didn't come. For a few seconds the arms dangled Laura over the edge, but didn't let go.

Laura opened her eyes, surprised. There was a glint of hope in the eyes that maybe, just maybe, she wasn't going to be dropped. That she was going to live.

And then the arms let go.

Like a puppet whose strings have been cut, Laura's limbs flailed helplessly as she fell down, screaming all the way.

And then Laura splashed head first into the pool of acid and sank deep into its depths.

For a few seconds nothing happened, except for a few bubbles rising to the surface. Then for a brief moment Laura's skull floated to the top of the pool, bobbed there for a while moment, and then sank again.

Laura Sparks, the super high school level puppeteer, was dead.


	11. Imposter

After Laura's execution Monobear led the remaining students back into the submarine, which took them back to the ship. None of the students said a word, each of them shocked into silence by the fresh memories of Laura's death, and tangled up with mixed feelings of guilt and remorse for their part in sentencing her to such a horrible fate. When the students finally arrived back at the ship it appeared to be about midnight, the only source of light coming from the moon behind a thin layer of clouds.

Once the submarine disappeared back into the sea, the students loitered on the top deck, unsure of what to do. It wasn't long before Monobear magically popped up from out of nowhere.

"Wasn't that trial hilarious? I mean the look on Laura's face when she was called out, priceless."

As one, the students glared at Monobear. Their anger towards the stuffed toy intensified by the disrespect he showed towards their dead friend.

"It's been such an interesting first day hasn't it?" Monobear continued, "What with your little escape attempt and all? I guess I should point out that the whole 'life raft' idea wouldn't have worked anyway, when I said there are worse things than sharks in these waters, I meant it. It would have taken ten seconds before anyone on that raft ended up as little bits of chum to this bad boy."

As if on cue something burst out of the water, and leapt right over the ship, making some of the students jump in fright. It was hard to see and details in the dark, but the creature's head was roughly the size of a barge, and was long like a snake. Whatever it was, it could easily have snapped up the life raft in a single bite. The creature splashed back down into the sea and disappeared back into the depths without a trace.

"What in god's name was that?!" Noah gasped.

"Oh him? He's just my pet goldfish." Monobear replied overly casually. "I fed him a nice, healthy diet of human meat when he was younger, so he grew to be a little big for his age. He's trained to do all sorts of things; swim through hoops, fetch sticks, bite of unsuspecting swimmers feet. I call him Sammy."

"How can you keep making jokes after everything that's just happened!" Ian growled. "You kill Alice and Laura then joke about that damn sea monster being a goldfish. Just what the hell kind of sick, twisted demon are you?"

"Well you'd know about demons, wouldn't you Ian?" Monobear replied cryptically, before returning to his cheerful personality. Though it was only for a split second, Jack noticed a look of panic flash across Ian's face. "Besides, as I've already said," Monobear continued, "I'm not the murder here, you all are. Laura was the one who killed Alice, and in turn you all voted to kill Laura. All I did was provide the means to do so. I enjoy a good massacre as much as anyone, but I'm a teacher through and through. Killing each other is your homework; I won't do it for you. It was Laura's will that Alice die, and your will that Laura die, so their deaths are on you. The only one of you sixteen who can claim innocence is Alice, since she died before she had the chance to join in the fun."

As much as the students wanted to protest, Monobear had a point. Though they didn't execute Laura personally, they did vote for her knowing full well what would happen. Being forced into this situation was no excuse. All the students would have to live with a little bit of Laura's blood on their hands for the rest of their lives.

Monobear chirped up again, "Now then, you brats better be off to bed. I've got some more surprises in store for you tomorrow, so stop standing around here and go…"

"What did Laura mean?" Jack interrupted. "She said there was a traitor amongst us? What's that supposed to mean."

Monobear was silent for a while, then slowly he started laughing. "Upupupupupupu. Isn't it obvious? It's exactly as she said. One of you bastards is a traitor…"

"I don't believe that!" Jack shouted "You said we were all classmates before, right? That we were all friends! I can't believe that any of us would sell the rest out!"

"That's a lot of faith you're placing in a group of people you don't know, especially just after a murder." Monobear replied, looking at Jack curiously. "But as it happens you've actually hit the nail on the head, sort of."

The students looked confused by Monobears reply, so the bear elaborated. "You brats were all members of Hope's Peak 8th X class, and there were sixteen of you in total. However due to certain circumstances, one of you couldn't take part in this game."

"Then shouldn't there only be fifteen of us?" Grace asked. "Who is the sixteenth person?"

"Upupupupu, Isn't it obvious?" Monobear laughed. "My agent has stolen the missing student's identity, and is currently standing amongst you, pretending to be a person they're not. One of you is the imposter, the one sabotaging your group from within. They're the one who put Laura up to killing, and they won't stop until each and every one of you is dead."

"One of us isn't who they say they are?" Abasi said, looking uncharacteristically shocked. "If we had our memories of our time at Hope's Peak we'd easily figure them out. But without them I don't see how we'll ever catch them."

"Well it'd be no fun if they got caught that easily." Monobear said. "Actually, speaking of memories, the imposter hasn't had theirs removed, and needless to say they know everything about what's going on here. Knowledge is power they say, so I thought it'd be a good counterbalance for being outnumbered fifteen to one. They also get one or two little extra bonuses for being such a good student, unlike the rest of you bastards. The key to the attic was one such bonus."

"Hang on, are we seriously taking Monobear's word on this?" Rokaku asked.

"I hate to admit it, but he seems to have been truthful to us so far. Besides, it fits Laura's testimony, and she had no reason to lie to us." Ian replied, a pained expression on his face.

"About time you bastards started believing me." Monobear giggled. "Well, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, I've got some big surprises in store for you tomorrow. Now go to bed, unless you want to go murder someone in their sleep, eithers fine with me. Nighty night brats."

With that Monobear once again mysteriously vanished. The students hung around for a bit, discussing the things they'd just learned, but one by one the students headed back to their rooms. The last two to go were Jack and Ian.

Ian seemed to be conflicted about something, so Jack asked him what the problem was.

"It's Laura." the assassin replied. "I've been taught from birth that sinners, such as people who kill innocents for material possessions, are evil to the core and deserve no mercy. But despite all Laura did, I don't believe that she was evil, or that she deserved to die." Ian grimaced, "I was so harsh to her in her final moments, yet now that I look back on it, I don't think Laura was to blame."

"I agree with you on that, I think we all do." Jack replied.

"That's not the point." Ian sighed. "You guys all grew in a world that told you things _like 'everyone deserves a second chance'_ and _'there's good and evil in everyone'_. I didn't, I was taught that one sin inevitably leads to another, and that if an evil person isn't stopped they'll only continue to spread more evil throughout the world. But maybe something in me changed during the forgotten time I spent at Hope's Peak, or the fact that I got to know Laura a little first, but I just can't seem to think that way anymore. I feel so… different… from before. I've never once felt regret for killing a target before now."

Jack didn't know how to reply to that. He had the feeling that he should say something to cheer Ian up, something to make him more… hopeful… but he didn't know what. For a brief moment the two boys were silent.

"In any case, the one thing I'm sure of is that the mastermind and the imposter are the ones to blame for this mess. And as leader it's my job to figure out their identities." Ian said, finally breaking the silence. "And when I do, they're gonna regret messing with me. In any case, it's late. We should try to get some sleep and prepare for whatever _'surprise'_ Monobear has in store for us tomorrow. Goodnight Jack."

As Ian left, Jack had the feeling he'd missed his chance to help Ian with what was troubling him. He sighed; there was nothing he could do about it now. With nothing else to do, Jack headed back to his room.

Sleep didn't come easy to Jack, he spent god knows how long trying to clear his head of the memories of what happened that night but nothing worked. Whenever he did manage to fall asleep he was quickly woken up again by nightmares. Uncomfortable with his current position Jack rolled onto his front. It was then he felt something small pressed against his chest from his breast pocket.

Jack rummaged around inside and found a small folded up piece of paper. Unfolding it, Jack saw it was a picture of him and his old school friends he had taken long ago. They were at the park, grinning like idiots at the person holding the camera.

It was then Jack realised just how much he missed them, it felt like forever that he had seen his friends. Not just them, he realised, but his family too. For all he knew he might never see them again. And he wanted to, he really did, it occurred to him that right now he wanted nothing more than to be together with his loved ones again.

But he couldn't, not until the mutual killing game was over, one way or another.

He still felt tired, and glancing at his alarm clock he saw it was currently five in the morning. Considering that the trial finished at about midnight, and that sleep was especially evasive for him right now, Jack reckoned he'd only had a little more than three hours rest in total.

He sighed. Although he was tired, he knew there was no way he would get back to sleep now. He lay on his bed for a while, thinking about the situation he'd found himself in, before deciding to get up and get ready. Everyone one else would still be asleep, but Jack needed to do something in order to keep his thoughts off the tragedies of last night.

After showering and getting dressed, Jack took a short walk around the ship. There was nothing out of the ordinary, except that Alice's body had disappeared from the shop and everything relating to the crime had been cleared away. Although Jack was relieved that he wouldn't have to walk past Alice's dead body whenever he needed something from the shop, he was sure that whatever Monobear had done with her body, it certainly wouldn't be respectful.

By the time Jack had finished his walk the horizon had started to turn orange, signalling that sunrise was a few minutes away. Jack was by the swimming pool outside the hotel, so he decided to sit in a deckchair and wait for the sun to come up.

"Couldn't sleep either?"

Jack jumped in his seat. He hadn't heard anybody nearby, and spun around to face the owner of the voice.

It was Grace, her long blonde hair and golden kimono seemed to sparkle slightly in the faint morning light. Jack felt a little bit of heat creep up on his cheeks again.

"Your face looks more red than usual. Are you not feeling well?" Grace asked.

"What? No I'm fine! Really!" Jack stammered. He mentally cursed his face for betraying him, not that he could hide anything from the super high school level sensor anyway.

"Then would you mind if I joined you?" Grace asked. As usual she kept the same stoic voice and expression. Not that it was a bad thing, on the contrary Jack found it rather cute. "Sure, go ahead." he replied.

She sat down on the deckchair next to him. For a few seconds neither said anything, they just sat there watching the sun starting to peak up from the horizon.

"You did well yesterday." Grace began, not looking away from the steadily rising sun. "In the courtroom. We probably couldn't have done it without you."

"I'm not sure I should feel proud of that." Jack replied. "I feel like it's because of me that Laura was killed."

"Yet it was also because of you that 14 of us are still alive now, right?" Grace said, looking at him. "It's important to consider the positive side to all things, especially in situations such as this."

"Hmm… I suppose you're right." Jack said. He felt a little better thinking about it like that. "Even so, I couldn't have done anything in the court without the evidence you found."

"That's kind of you to say. I guess we make quite a team together."

"Haha, yeah I guess we do."

There was another brief lapse in conversation.

"It isn't our fault you know." Grace suddenly whispered, a hint of sadness showing on her face. "Despite what Monobear says we aren't the ones to blame here, it's him and his imposter who are."

"But we're the ones who…"

"That doesn't matter!" Grace interrupted, showing a little more determination behind her normally composed self than usual. "Even if we did vote to punish Laura it's because of the system Monobear has trapped us in, not our free will. This situation was created by Monobear and only he has the power to change it, therefor the results of the situation are his responsibility, not ours."

"So what, we should just give in and play his game because we don't have the power to change it?" Jack asked. He was more upset than he had realised, as if the full meaning of Alice and Laura's deaths were only just sinking in now. In fact he felt like tears would start welling up from his eyes any second.

"No, we won't give up." Grace replied with calm ferocity, looking Jack straight in the eyes. "We'll never give up. We'll keep looking, keep searching for clues. Anything we can use to get out of here, any scrap of information no matter how small. Monobear might hold all the cards for now but things will change eventually, and when it does we'll see how long the mastermind can hide behind stuffed toys before the super high school level students find him."

Jack could feel Grace's words igniting something in him, breathing life into the spark of hope that Jack hadn't realised he'd lost after Alice died. He could feel the familiar feeling that drove him to be a paramedic returning, fuelling his spirits once again. And when Jack looked back at Grace, there was light in his eyes again, the light of hope.

"You're right damn it!" he grinned, determination filling his voice. "This is far from over. No matter what the odds are, we'll find a way to survive this! I'm sure of it!"

On the horizon the sun fully emerged into the sky. It brought closure from the events of last night, and seemed to herald the beginning of a new day.


End file.
